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SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH  AT 
WORK  AND  AT  PLAY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

mW  YOKK   •   BOSTON   •   CHICAGO   •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA    •    SAN  FHANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

tONDON  •  BOUBAY   •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMH-LAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


SAFEGUARDS    FOR   CITY 
YOUTH 

AT  WORK  AND  AT  PLAY 


BY 
LOUISE  DE  KOVEN  BOWEN 


WITH  A  PREFACE 

BY 
JANE  ADDAMS 


.»      •        e  • 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1914 

AU  rights  reserved 


r 


r'^f 


Copyright,  igi4 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  clectrotyped.    Published  November,  igi4* 


TO  THE  DIRECTORS, 

THE  SUPERINTENDENT, 

THE  ATTORNEY  AND  THE  OFFICERS 

OF  THE  JUVENILE  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCIATION 

OF  CHICAGO  WHO  HAVE  WORKED  SO 

UNTIRINGLY   FOR   THE   PROTECTION  OF 

YOUNG  PEOPLE  AND  WHO  HAVE  SO  LOYALLY 

SUPPORTED  EVERY   EFFORT  OF 

THEIR  PRESIDENT 


% 

341173 


PREFACE 

The  following  pages  give  a  graphic  description  of 
the  sordid  and  careless  conditions  under  which  thou- 
sands of  young  people  habitually  live,  and  of  the 
vaUant  efforts  of  a  small  group  of  citizens  to  enlist 
public  agencies,  state,  county  and  city,  to  provide  at 
least  a  minimum  of  protection. 

Although  the  observations  and  experiences  here 
recorded  are  confined  to  Chicago,  the  book  is  perhaps 
chiefly  valuable  because  of  the  unforgettable  impres- 
sion it  makes  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader  that  the 
huge  commercial  cities  of  our  day  exhibit  so  little  con- 
cern for  the  morale  of  the  next  generation. 

This  is  perhaps  not  surprising,  when  we  realize 
that  cities  containing  millions  of  people  are,  after  all, 
so  new  a  thing  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  that  they 
are  not  yet  equipped  with  such  fundamentals  as  park 
spaces  and  efficient  transportation. 

Conscious  of  this,  groups  of  pubhc-spirited  citizens 
in  Chicago  and  elsewhere  have  organized  City  Plan- 
ning Committees  to  consider  the  development  of  the 
modern  city  upon  a  large  scale.  They  have  become 
convinced  that  the  undirected  self-interest  of  the  in- 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

dividual  citizen  cannot  be  counted  upon  to  bring  order 
and  beauty  out  of  the  mass  of  hastily  planned  build- 
ings and  haphazard  streets.  In  the  same  spirit  other 
groups  have  come  to  feel  the  need  of  a  wide-spread 
agency  which  should  survey  the  city  as  a  whole  in  order 
to  study  conditions  as  they  affect  the  morals  of  the 
young  and  to  provide  adequate  public  safeguards  for 
the  children  and  youth — in  Chicago  they  number 
882,000,  a  huge  city  in  themselves — whose  protection 
has  not  yet  been  considered  a  matter  of  civic  obliga- 
tion. 

The  present  disordered  situation  demonstrates  that 
adequate  protection  is  not  secured  through  the  solic- 
itude of  parents,  the  sectional  activity  of  educators, 
the  self-interest  of  employers  nor  through  the  profit- 
seeking  of  pleasure  purveyors.  To  consider  moral 
needs  from  a  city  wide  point  of  view  the  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association  was  organized  in  Chicago.  Its 
prosaic  beginnings  are  somewhat  analogous  to  the 
City  Planning  movement  which  while  it  does  not  con- 
sist in  the  regulation  of  tenement  houses  and  the  pro- 
visions for  sanitary  alleys  cannot  succeed  in  a  city 
where  these  have  not  been  obtained  nor  can  it  spring 
out  of  a  public  opinion  unmindful  of  them.  Although 
Beauty  expressed  in  architectural  order,  wide  green 
spaces  and  gracious  water  fronts  was  the  final  out- 
come of  the  City  Planning  movement,  the  first  appeal 


PREFACE  ix 

was  of  necessity  to  the  more  primitive  instinct  of 
self-preservation;  the  most  prosaic  laws  regulating 
the  height  of  buildings,  the  abatement  of  the  smoke 
nuisance  and  the  collection  of  refuse  which  were  the 
outcome  of  such  an  appeal,  finally  bore  a  distinct  re- 
lation to  Beauty  itself. 

The  first  years  of  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion were  devoted  to  securing  that  groundwork  of 
legal  and  civic  protection  in  which  American  cities 
are  so  sadly  lacking,  but  the  safeguards  urged  by  the 
author  of  this  book  bear  a  direct  relation  to  the  spirit- 
ual powers  of  the  future  citizens  of  Chicago.  She  in- 
sists that  the  basic  safety  of  youthful  health  and 
morals  must  be  secured  by  the  civic  authorities  unless 
all  the  efforts  of  Education  and  Philanthropy,  so 
constantly  undertaken  on  behalf  of  city  youth,  are  to 
be  brought  to  nought.  That  however  well-considered 
these  efforts,  they  cannot  be  successful  with  young 
people  who  are  already  morally  debauched. 

The  reader  of  this  book  will  find  the  record  of  va- 
rious municipal  and  social  experiments  and  the  sugges- 
tions for  many  others  but  the  author  constantly  insists 
that  their  promoters  have  a  right  to  pre-suppose  a 
well-administered  system  of  civic  protection. 

She  does  not  claim,  for  instance,  that  women  police 
and  the  careful  regulation  of  dance  halls,  which  she 
recommends,    will   in    themselves    supply   adequate 


X  PREFACE 

pleasure  for  the  86,000  young  people  who  nightly  at- 
tend public  dances  in  Chicago,  but  she  does  contend 
that  we  may  thus  remove  the  basest  temptations,  the 
unforgivable  surroundings  and  the  most  flagrant  out- 
rages against  decency,  so  that  the  multitude  of  young 
people  innocently  craving  the  amusement  to  which 
their  scanty  years  entitle  them,  may  secure  it  with  a 
certain  degree  of  safety. 

The  Association  ever  depending  upon  fresh  knowl- 
edge and  new  experience  has  endeavored  to  equip 
itself  with  a  wide  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  the 
young  people  of  Chicago  and  their  needs  and  to  work 
out  methods  apphcable  to  each  new  situation  which 
confronts  it. 

Each  phase  of  its  activity  raises  anew  the  question: 
How  have  we  let  it  happen  that  care  for  the  moral 
safety  of  the  oncoming  generation  is  the  latest  of  all 
our  civic  undertakings?  That  public  effort  on  behalf 
of  schools  and  libraries  to  stimulate  the  intelligence,  on 
behalf  of  health  measures  to  control  the  diseases  of 
childhood,  absorbed  the  attention  and  activity  of  the 
community  for  so  long  a  time  before  we  were  even 
aware  of  youth's  moral  need  for  the  most  elementary 
pubhc  safeguards? 

The  book  is  further  valuable  in  that  the  author  has 
presented  the  significance  and  implications  of  the  dis- 
coveries made  by  the  Association  of  which  she  has  so 


PREFACE  Xi 

long  been  president,  with  an  interpretation  singularly 
free  from  the  morbid  and  sentimental.  She  gives  a 
sense  of  reality  to  the  movement  represented  by  such 
agencies  as  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  and 
in  a  measure  she  prepares  the  temper  of  that  public 
opinion  upon  which  the  success  of  any  movement  de- 
pends. For  unfortunately  we  have  no  other  phrase 
save  "public  opinion"  for  that  outlook  on  the  world 
which  marks  each  age  for  what  it  is — the  summary  of 
its  experiences,  knowledge  and  affections  in  which  are 
found  the  very  roots  of  social  existence.  Yet  pubhc 
opinion  has  a  curious  trick  of  suddenly  regarding  as  a 
living  moral  issue,  vital  and  unappeasable,  some  old 
situation  concerning  which  society  has  been  indifferent 
for  many  years.  The  newly  morahzed  issue  almost  as 
if  by  accident,  suddenly  takes  fire  and  sets  whole  com- 
munities in  a  blaze,  lighting  up  human  relationships 
and  public  duty  with  a  new  meaning,  in  the  end  trans- 
forming an  abstract  social  ideal  into  a  political  demand 
for  new  legal  enactments. 

When  that  blaze  actually  starts,  when  the  theme  is 
heated,  molten  as  it  were  with  human  passion  and  de- 
sire, it  is  found  that  there  are  many  mature  men  and 
women  of  moral  purpose  and  specialized  knowledge 
who  have  become  efficient  unto  life.  Among  them  are 
those  who  have  long  felt  a  compunction  in  regard  to 
the  ill-adjustment  of  which  society  has  become  con- 


XU  PREFACE 

scious  and  are  eager  to  contribute  to  the  pattern  of 
juster  human  relations. 

Perhaps  because  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion has  embodied  this  new  compunction  in  regard 
to  the  civic  protection  of  youth,  it  has  been  able  from 
the  start  to  count  upon  the  cooperation  of  public- 
spirited  women,  when,  true  to  its  origin  of  a  voluntary 
committee  supplementing  the  work  of  a  public  court, 
it  has  continually  induced  public  authorities  to  as- 
sume new  obligations. 

The  members  of  the  Association,  as  many  other 
public-spirited  citizens  who  have  advocated  sorely 
needed  social  changes,  who  have  made  volunteer  ex- 
periments as  to  their  practicability  and  who  have 
finally  created  public  sentiment  in  their  favor,  know 
only  too  well  that  social  reforms  are  never  embodied 
in  law  until  long  after  the  need  of  them  has  been 
universally  admitted;  that  such  laws  are  only  enacted 
years  after  the  victims  of  existing  conditions  have 
passed  through  great  suffering  and  even  then  always 
in  the  teeth  of  opposition  from  those  who  profit  by  the 
existing  status.  They  have  learned  that  only  political 
pressure  will  finally  set  in  motion  the  heavy  machinery 
through  which  the  written  statute  may  be  changed. 

The  Association  therefore  welcomed  as  a  reinforce- 
ment to  all  of  its  aims  the  vote  of  a  quarter  million 
women,    so    newly    granted    in    Chicago,    confident 


••• 


PREFACE  xm 

that  the  women's  vote  would  hasten  the  day  when 
just  dealing  and  "the  issue  of  things"  should  go 
together. 

The  following  record  of  a  finely  sustained  social 
effort  has  been  made  by  the  president  of  the  Associa- 
tion who  gave  most  generously  of  her  time,  money 
and  ability  during  every  day  for  seven  years.  She 
brought  to  the  perplexing  task  a  clear  mind  and  a 
spirit  both  ardent  and  generous.  Every  page  of  this 
book  is  warmed  by  her  personal  devotion  and  great 
concern.  The  studies  given  here  of  conditions,  af- 
fecting the  development  of  city  youth,  are  a  distinct 
contribution  to  that  organized  effort  which  is  des- 
tined to  be  more  imperative  and  far  reaching  than 
the  movement  for  City  Planning. 

It  is  indeed  the  spiritual  supplement  of  that  move- 
ment, without  which  City  Planning  must  always  re- 
main meaningless  and  cities  themselves  become  an 
ever  increasing  menace  to  the  highest  hopes  of  civil- 
ization. 

Jane  Addams 
Hull-House 

CmcAGO 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Introduction i 

II.  Civic  Protection  in  Recreation 12 

III.  Legal  Protection  in  Industry 52 

IV.  Legal  Protection  for  Delinquents 94 

V.  Legal  Safeguards  for  the  Dependent  ....  128 

VI.  Protection  against  Illegal  Discrimination  .    .  160 

VII.  Need  of  Further  Protection 202 

Index 231 


SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH  AT 
WORK  AND  AT  PLAY 


SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 
CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

During  the  last  few  years,  there  have  been  great  j 
changes  all  over  the  world  among  educators  and  \ 
philanthropists  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  chil- 
dren.   The  emphasis  has  gradually  been  shifted  from  j 
punishment  to  prevention  and  from  prevention  to/ 
vital  welfare.    This  changed  attitude  toward  children 
was  slow  to  register  itself  in  legal  machinery,  but 
in  1899  the  first  Juvenile  Court  Law  in  the  United 
States  was  passed  by  the  IlHnois  legislature  and  be- 
came effective  the  first  day  of  July  in  that  year  when 
a  Juvenile  Court  was  established  in  Chicago.    The  law 
provided  for  the  organization  of  the  Court  and  for 
the  probation  system,  but  because  it  failed  to  provide 
for  the  salaries  of  the  probation  officers,  a  few  public- 
spirited  citizens  organized  a  Juvenile  Court  Com- 
mittee and  for  eight  years  paid  the  salaries  of  the 
probation  officers.     In  order  to  keep  the  children 
out  of  the  police  stations,  this  same  Committee  also 

I 


,2^    ,    ,,    *    SAFEGUAkpS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

maintained,  with  intermittent  help  from  the  city  and 
county,  a  detention  home  through  which  about 
twenty-six  hundred  children  passed  yearly.  For  eight 
years  therefore  the  members  of  this  Committee  had 
every  opportimity  to  know  the  children  who  were 
annually  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Chicago. 
/~:>rhe  Committee  discovered  that  they  were  all  or- 
dinary, everyday  children,  some  neglected  and 
abused,  some  disorderly  and  immanageable,  some 
runaways  and  vagrants,  some  mentally  deficient  and 
some  only  mischievous.  Almost  all  were  underfed 
and  poorly  nourished  and  possessed  some  chronic 
physical  defect,  evinced  by  their  pinched  faces, 
their  stooping  shoulders  and  narrow  chests,  their 
weak  eyes  and  twitching  mouths. 

The  Committee  found  that  these  children  were 
taken  into  court  for  all  kinds  of  offenses,  baiting 
peddlers,  throwing  stones,  breaking  windows,  running 
away  from  school,  fighting,  playing  craps  or  baseball 
on  the  street,  or  gathering  coal  as  it  fell  from  the 
trains  passing  through  the  coalyards.  To  these  coal- 
yards  little  girls  were  often  sent  by  their  mothers  as 
late,  or  rather  as  early,  as  three  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

Of  the  children  brought  into  court  for  more  serious 
offenses,  such  as  petty  larceny,  the  Committee  learned 
that  sometimes  a  child,  having  had  only  coffee  and 
bread  for  many  days,  had  stolen  food  in  order  to  satisfy 


INTRODUCTION  3 

his  appetite;  or  a  boy  whose  father  regularly  kept  his 
wages  had  revolted  and  taken  what  he  considered 
his  own  earnings;  or  a  little  girl,  given  only  the  barest 
necessities  of  life,  had  pilfered  the  finery  her  heart 
cravgd;  or  an  adventurous  youth  had  stolen  money 
from  his  employer  in  order  to  bet  upon  the  races  or  to 
invest  in  a  get-rich-quick  concern. 

The  Committee  also  learned  to  know  the  nearly 
hve  hundred  girls  who  were  brought  in  each  year  on 
the  charge  of  immorality.  Whether  these  girls  hsid^ 
been  taken  from  the  streets,  the  disreputable  dance 
halls  or  theatres,  they  all  told  the  same  story,  that 
they  had  been  in  search  of  amusement. 

I  recall  a  thin  and  wretched  child,  brought  into  the 
court  one  day,  who  held  in  her  arms  what  I  thought 
must  be  her  doll  until  I  saw  that  it  was  a  baby,  the 
child's  own  baby.  She  was  not  quite  fourteen  years 
old  and  she  had  forgotten  even  the  name  of  the  father 
of  her  child. 

Sometimes  the  souls  of  the  Committee  were  tried 
with  the  senseless  complaints  brought  against  inno- 
cent children;  one  woman  had  a  boy  arrested  be- 
cause he  persistently  climbed  upon  her  piazza  and 
made  faces  at  her,  although  upon  inquiry  it  developed 
that  the  first  time  he  had  climbed  upon  her  porch  to 
get  a  ball  which  he  had  inadvertently  tossed  there, 
she  had  thrown  hot  water  upon  him;  another  woman 


4  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

who  kept  chickens  had  a  small  boy  arrested  be- 
cause every  time  he  met  her  on  the  street  he  would 
flap  his  arms  and  crow  like  a  rooster,  which  hurt  her 
feelings. 

The  members  of  the  Juvenile  Court  Comn||ttee 
gradually  discovered  that  the  city  was  full  of  dan- 
gerous spots  for  children.  The  disreputable  dance 
halls,  poolrooms  and  saloons  never  closed  their  doors. 
They  were  always  open  and  the  children  were  always 
tempted.  The  demand  for  amusement  was  insistent, 
the  supply  of  facilities  for  innocent  recreation  was 
inadequate,  and  so  year  after  year  the  same  thing 
took  place  and  a  straggUng  procession  of  children, 
Kving  under  the  same  conditions,  exposed  to  the  same 
temptations,  wended  its  way  in  and  out  of  the  Court. 
The  Committee  gradually  awakened  to  the  fact  that 
although  pubUc-spirited  citizens  had  been  instru- 
mental in  the  past  in  establishing  institutions  for  the 
care  of  delinquent  children  and  in  studying  the  proc- 
esses by  which  criminals  are  punished,  they  had  paid 
much  less  attention  to  the  processes  by  which  crim- 
inals are  produced.  kThey  had  been  trying  to  sweep  . 
back  a  river  of  crime,  but  they  had  done  very  Httle  to  / 
build  the  preventive  dams  across  the  tiny  streams 
which  continually  swelled  the  volume  of  that  river, 
much  less  had  they  been  concerned  to  purify  the 
fountain  heads  from  which  the  streams  arose,  i 


INTRODUCTION  5 

When  in  1907  the  Committee  secured  the  legislation 
which  placed  probation  officers  on  the  pay  roll  of  the 
county  and  when  the  Juvenile  Court  was  housed  in 
a  new  building  which  contained  also  the  detention 
,,  home,  the  members  of  the  Committee  were  ready  to 
organize  themselves  into  an  Association  which  should 
make  a  determined  attempt  to  minimize  the  wretched 
conditions  which  constantly  demoralized  children. 
Thoroughly  convinced  by  their  experience  that  there 
are  certain  environments  which  the  normal  child  can- 
not withstand  and  to  which  society  has  obviously  no 
right  to  expose  him,  they  organized  a  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association,  although  at  that  moment  they 
scarcely  knew  where  the  work  of  protection  should 
begin.  They  only  felt  that  something  must  be  done 
to  build  a  fence  at  the  top  of  the  cliff  in  order  to  cheat 
the  ambulance,  symbolized  by  the  Juvenile  Court, 
waiting  at  the  bottom  of  the  precipice  to  rescue  the 

/^childish  victims.)  The  Committee  was  determined 
to  reduce  the  number  of  children  who  day  after  day 
and  year  after  year  were  being  brought  into  the 
Juvenile  Court.  The  Association  stated  in  one  of 
its  earliest  publications:  ''Each  year  between  3,000 
and  4,000  children  pass  through  the  Juvenile  Court  of 
this  city  and  about  1 1 ,000  other  young  persons  between 
the  ages  of  sixteen  and  twenty  pass  through  the  other 
€«arts.    AI  ii«&t  art  ameceedtd  tkt  f#ll«wifig  yeaJ  by 


6  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

another  15,000  children  inheriting  the  same  tenden- 
cies, exposed  to  the  same  temptations,  surrounded  by 
the  same  dreary  environment,  often  physically  and 
mentally  enfeebled  by  neglect. 

[  "  One  fact  is  well  established,  a  large  proportion  of 
these  children  are  innocent  victims  of  vicious  and  un- 
lawful neighborhood  influences.  Progress  demands 
that  the  procession  of  15,000  children  which  moves 
yearly  through  our  courts,  be  shortened.  This  Asso- 
ciation wants  to  get  at  the  child  before  he  goes  down, 
to  remove  temptations,  to  better  conditions  in  his 
neighborhood,  to  keep  him  from  committing  the  mis- 
demeanors and  crimes  that  take  him  into  the  courts — 
to  use  formative  rather  than  reformative  measures." 

It  was  obviously  necessary  to  divide  the  city  into 
districts  and  gradually  fourteen  of  these  were  organ- 
ized. In  each  one  a  paid  officer  was  placed  whose 
first  duty  it  was  to  prevent  can-rushing  and  cocaine 
selling,  to  keep  the  children  out  of  disreputable  dance 
halls,  questionable  ice  cream  parlors,  candy  stores 
and  photograph  galleries,  and  to  try  in  every  way  to 
protect  and  safeguard  them. 

In  each  one  of  these  districts  there  was  also  a  local 
league  of  interested  citizens,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
know  their  own  neighborhoods;  to  know  how  many 
saloon  keepers  or  tobacconists  were  selling  liquor  or 
tobacco  to  young  boys,  how  many  poolroom  keepers 


INTRODUCTION  7 

were  harboring  minors,  how  many  disreputable 
houses  were  enticing  young  girls  and  how  many  im- 
properly conducted  dance  halls  there  were  in  their 
leighborhoods.  It  was  also  the  business  of  these 
citizens  to  know  how  many  vacant  lots  might  be 
turned  into  gardens  or  playgrounds,  how  many 
churches  have  rooms  that  might  be  opened  for  reading 
rooms  or  for  recreational  purposes,  and  how  many 
schools  might  be  used  as  social  centres^ 

Each  League  developed  methods  fitted  to  its  own 
neighborhood.  For  example,  in  one  district  there  were 
a  large  number  of  factories.  It  was  found  that  the 
girl  employees  had  no  place  to  go  to  luncheon  except 
a  saloon  where,  in  order  to  get  something  to  eat,  they 
were  obliged  to  take  something  to  drink.  In  that  dis- 
trict the  League  opened  a  rest  and  lunch  room  for 
factory  girls. 

In  another  district  it  was  found  that  there  were 
several  notorious  gangs  of  boys,  one  of  which  had  its 
headquarters  in  the  vaults  of  an  old,  disused  brewery, 
where  the  boys  kept  their  booty  and  from  time  to 
time  added  to  it  through  successful  "hold-ups."  A 
very  young  man  was  put  on  as  an  officer  in  that  dis- 
trict. He  obtained  the  confidence  of  one  of  the  gangs 
and,  becoming  very  friendly  with  them,  he  finally  in- 
duced them  to  visit  the  small  park  of  the  district 
where  he  organized  them  into  teams  and  put  them 


8  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

into  athletic  competitions,  pitting  them  against  each 
other.  In  another  district  where  several  young  girls 
were  assaulted  upon  the  street  at  night,  it  was  found 
that  restaurants,  bakeries  and  all-night  lunch  rooms 
were  in  the  habit  of  giving  away  broken  scraps  of  food 
between  the  hours  of  two  and  four  in  the  morning  and 
needy  families  were  sending  their  children  for  this 
food.  An  ofl&cer  from  the  League  visited  148  of  these 
places  and  secured  from  the  proprietors  a  promise 
that  they  would  change  the  hour  of  distribution  to 
seven  in  the  morning.  An  investigation  made  three 
or  four  months  later  showed  that  147  out  of  the  148 
proprietors  had  kept  their  promises. 

The  Association  receives  every  year  about  6000 
complaints  in  regard  to  children.  Some  of  these 
complaints  are  in  the  form  of  anonymous  letters  call- 
ing the  attention  of  the  Association  to  conditions 
which  are  demoralizing  children,  or  to  children  who 
are  going  wrong  because  of  some  vicious  environ- 
ment, and  it  is  from  these  cases  that  the  Associa- 
tion learns  in  what  part  of  the  city  their  activity 
should  be  immediately  applied.  Their  seven  years 
of  experience  have  made  it  increasingly  clear  that  it 
is  impossible  to  obtain  any  proper  standards  of  public 
morals  unless  there  are  well-considered  legal  provi- 
sions. It  is  of  course  obvious  that  in  many  instances 
the  laws  designed   to  safeguard  young  people  are 


INTRODUCTION  g 

t/  tally  inadequate.    They  are  often  wretchedly  en- 

rced  and  even  designedly  ignored  by  the  very  offi- 
cials responsible  for  them.  In  spite  of  this,  however, 
the  members  of  the  Association  have  become  con- 
vinced that  the  modern  city  must  not  only  continue 
to  enact  laws  to  control  and  to  regulate  certain  public 
social  and  industrial  activities,  but  that  trained 
and  disinterested  officials  must  be  secured  for  their 
enforcement. 

Sometimes  the  dangers  to  which  young  people  were 
carelessly  subjected  were  obvious,  and  again  they  were 
only  revealed  as  the  results  of  careful  investigation. 

In  seven  years*  experience  as  President  of  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association,  I  have  been  almost 
equally  impressed  by  the  increasing  bulk  of  its  activ- 
ity and  its  constantly  varied  character.  During  this 
time,  new  causes  for  delinquency  have  been  contin- 
ually disclosed,  as  have  unsuspected  methods  used  by 
depraved  women  and  dissolute  men  to  decoy  youth  to 
its  undoing. 

When  at  the  Board  Meetings  of  the  Association  a 
report  has  been  given  of  so-called  ''house  parties", 
arranged  for  the  purpose  of  entangling  boys  and  girls 
in  evil  relations,  although  the  guests  might  have  ac- 
cepted the  invitations  quite  innocently  and  even  with 
the  permission  of  their  unsuspecting  parents,  or  when 
a  report  was  given  of  Httle  girls  who  were  decoyed  into 


lO  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

a  photograph  gallery  in  which  the  Association  after- 
ward discovered  and  destroyed  forty  thousand  inde- 
cent pictures,  the  members  of  the  Board  in  all  humil- 
ity have  often  confessed  to  one  another  their  chagrin 
that  well-meaning  adults  like  themselves  should  have 
remained  ignorant  of  such  conditions,  allowing  im- 
mature young  people  to  struggle  with  them  as  best 
they  might.  Whenever  the  Association  has  had  cause 
to  suspect  wide-spread  conditions  which  made  for 
juvenile  delinquency,  an  investigation  has  been  made 
with  the  double  view  of  securing  publicity  and  of  sug- 
gesting remedies.  Often  only  a  more  vigorous  en- 
forcement of  existing  laws  was  needed;  in  many  other 
cases  the  enactment  of  new  laws  was  recommended 
and  in  time  secured.  After  the  investigators  had  sub- 
mitted their  material  to  the  superintendent  of  the 
Association,  it  was  put  into  pamphlet  form  under  the 
direction  of  a  small  committee  from  the  Board  of 
Directors.  As  President  of  the  Association,  much  ab- 
sorbed in  its  ever  widening  usefulness,  I  have  myself 
with  a  few  exceptions  written  the  text  of  these  various 
investigations.  In  presenting  them  to  the  public  in 
the  form  of  a  book,  I  am  not  only  assembling  the 
material  written  during  the  last  few  years,  but  I  have 
endeavored  to  show  how  one  sincere  effort  of  the 
Association  inevitably  merged  into  another.  I  ven- 
ture to  hope  that  the  book  may  present  to  the  reader 


!\  INTRODUCTION 


II 


not  only  the  information  acquired  through  careful  in- 
vestigators but  will  make  clear  that  the  knowledge 
thus  secured  inevitably  became  the  driving  force  for 
serious  moral  effort  to  the  end  that  the  untoward  con- 
ditions of  city  life  might  be  ameUorated. 

While  these  undertakings  of  the  Association  have 
been  classified  into  chapters  on  the  basis  of  underly- 
ing trends,  in  the  main  a  chronological  order  of  our 
experiences  has  been  followed. 

It  is  inevitable  that  in  such  elusive  and  difficult 
undertakings,  the  results  should  often  have  been  baf- 
fling and  disappointing,  but  it  is  hoped  that  a  sincere 
recital  of  the  work  of  a  pioneer  organization  during 
the  first  seven  years  of  its  existence  may  be  of  value 
to  the  many  Juvenile  Protective  Associations  which 
have  been  founded  during  the  past  few  years  in  va- 
rious parts  of  the  United  States  and  whose  very  exist- 
ence shows  that,  as  a  nation,  we  are  beginning  to 
reaUze  that  we  have  a  solemn  obUgatiosLto  protect  ja^ 
niuIHtude  of  young  people  who  have  hitherto  been 
defenceless. 


CHAPTER  n 

CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION 

From  the  very  beginning  it  was  obvious  that  the 
majority  of  children  fell  into  diflSculties  through  their 
search  for  recreation.  In  all  of  our  towns  and  cities 
hundreds  of  young  people,  weary  from  their  monot- 
onous work  in  shop  or  factory,  walk  the  streets 
in  the  evening  imperiously  asserting  their  right  to 
pleasure.  Business  enterprise  has  taken  advantage  of 
this  natural  desire  for  recreation,  and  commercialized 
amusements  have  sprung  up  everywhere,  prepared 
to  cater  to  every  taste  of  this  childish  multitude. 
Penny  arcades,  slot  machines,  moving  picture  shows, 
cheap  theatres,  amusement  parks  and  dance  halls  are 
all  attempting  to  attract  children  with  every  device 
known  to  modern  advertising.  Young  people  with- 
out protection  are  thus  exposed  to  temptation  at  the 
very  moment  when  they  are  least  able  to  withstand  it. 

One  of  the  first  cases  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  Association  was  that  of  a  young  girl,  arrested  on 
the  charge  of  stealing  jewelry,  who  had  closely  imi- 
tated what  she  had  seen  in  a  moving  picture  theatre. 

12 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  13 

The  film  showed  a  woman  going  into  a  jewelry  store 
and  asking  to  see  some  rings.  She  was  chewing  gum 
and,  when  an  opportunity  came,  she  took  a  ring 
and  placed  it  in  the  gum  which  she  had  previously 
stuck  underneath  the  counter.  The  ring  of  course  was 
missed  and  a  search  made  for  it,  but  it  was  not  found 
and  the  woman  left  the  store.  Shortly  after  a  boy 
came  and  when  he  left  he  took  with  him  the  gum 
within  which  the  ring  was  concealed.  The  spectator 
had  naturally  said,  "How  easy!"  but  when  the  girl 
who  was  brought  to  the  Association  had  tried  it,  she 
had  been  almost  immediately  arrested. 

For  several  years  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion struggled  with  such  individual  cases  of  wrong- 
doing connected  directly  and  indirectly  with  the  the- 
atres, but  early  in  1909  it  undertook  an  investigation 
of  all  the  theatres  and  moving  picture  shows  of  the  city. 
There  were  at  that  time  in  Chicago  41  first  class  the- 
atres, 405  five  and  ten  cent  theatres,  seating  93,000 
people.  It  was  estimated  that  approximately  32,000 
children  attended  these  theatres  daily.  In  order  to 
ascertain  the  conditions  existing  in  the  theatres, 
the  officers  of  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association 
made  1,156  visits  to  them.  Part  of  this  investigation 
was  made  in  two  evenings  when  all  the  officers  of  the 
Association  and  120  volunteers  visited  298  cheap  the- 
atres.   This  investigation  showed  a  demoralized  con- 


14  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

dition  of  affairs  and  216  violations  of  the  law  were  re- 
ported to  the  police,  the  building  and  fire  departments 
and  the  state  factory  inspector.  The  observation  of 
the  investigators  was  that  outside  the  theatres  there 
was  always  a  crowd  of  children  who  were  attracted  by 
the  lurid  advertisements  and  sensational  posters  and 
these  crowds  were  frequented  by  evil-minded  men 
who  are  generally  to  be  found  where  little  girls  con- 
gregate. The  boys  and  men  in  such  crowds  often 
speak  to  the  girls  and  invite  them  to  see  the  show  and 
there  is  an  unwritten  code  that  such  courtesy  shall  be 
paid  for  later  by  the  girls. 

In  most  of  the  theatres,  these  crowds  remained  until 
a  late  hour  because  the  management  ofifered  at  the 
close  of  the  evening  three  admissions  for  ten  cents  or 
sometimes  two  for  five  cents  and  the  children  pilfered 
or  begged  in  order  to  obtain  the  price  of  admission. 
Inside  the  theatres  the  ventilation  was  bad,  the  air 
vitiated,  the  exits  were  inadequate  and  the  darkness 
afforded  a  cover  for  familiarity  and  sometimes  even 
for  immorality.  The  buildings  frequently  did  not 
comply  with  the  building  and  fire  ordinances.  The 
motion  pictures  thrown  upon  the  screens  were  demor- 
alizing. The  imagination  of  the  boy  who  attended 
these  shows  was  fired  by  what  he  saw  of  the  gentle- 
manly burglar,  the  expert  safe-blower,  the  daring 
train  robber,  the  reckless  scout,  all  filling  his  ideas  oi 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  1 5 

what  a  hero  ought  to  be.  At  one  time,  after  a  set  of. 
pictures  had  been  shown  which  depicted  the  hero  as 
a  burglar  a  large  number  of  boys  were  brought  into 
Court,  all  of  whom  had  in  their  possession  house- 
breakers' tools,  and  they  all  stated  that  they  had 
invested  in  these  implements  because  they  had  seen 
these  pictures  and  they  were  anxious  to  become 
^'gentlemen  burglars." 

At  that  time  the  pictures  in  Chicago  not  only  sj 
showed  crime  of  all  kinds  but  scenes  of  brutality  and  • 
revenge  calculated  to  arouse  coarse  and  brutal  'emo- 
tions. One  set  of  pictures,  for  example,  showing 
Indians  on  the  warpath,  detailed  with  great  accu- 
racy the  horrible"  scenes  of  torturing  and  burning 
attendant  upon  a  massacre.  Another  set  called  the 
''Gypsies'  Revenge"  represented  a  band  of  gypsies 
robbing  a  man  and  then,  because  he  resisted,  they 
bound  him  and  hung  him  by  a  rope  over  a  precipice. 
As  the  picture  vividly  showed  the  body  dangling  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth  and  being  plucked  at  by  vul- 
tures the  shudder  of  horror  which  passed  over  the 
audience  was  quite  obvious.  Such  pictures  could  not 
fail  to  have  an  injurious  effect  upon  young  people. 
When  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  would  re- 
port a  film  of  this  kind  to  the  Chief  of  Police,  he  .would 
remove  it  at  once,  but  it  would  reappear  shortly  in 
another  part  of  the  city,  to  be  again  reported.    The 


l6  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Association,  feeling  that  it  was  necessary  to  take 
some  decisive  step  in  the  matter,  found  that  an  ordi- 
nance had  been  passed  previously  which  provided  that 
a  censorship  committee  should  be  appointed  by  the  ' 
Chief  of  Police  and  that  every  film  should  be  passed 
on  by  this  committee  and  signed  by  the  Chief  before 
it  could  be  shown  in  a  theatre;  also  that  a  license  to 
show  the  film  should  be  posted  in  the  theatre. 

Representatives  of  the  Association  and  of  the  City 
Club  went  to  the  Chief  of  Police  and  urged  that  this 
ordinance  be  put  in  force.  Since  this  was  done  the  de- 
partment has  cut  out  approximately  126  miles  of 
objectionable  films.  The  censorship  committee  does 
not  allow  scenes  of  murder  or  robbing  or  abduction  to 
be  shown  upon  the  screens,  and  in  consequence  the 
motion  picture  shows  of  Chicago  are  now  very  decent. 

With  the  theatres  which  show  plays  it  is  more  diffi- 
cult to  deal,  for  it  is  hard  to  draw  the  line  between  the 
legitimate  drama  arjd  the  plays  suggesting  to  boys 
and  girls  theft  and  murder.  At  one  theatre  a  play 
showed  a  brutal  father  who  struck  his  wife,  and 
in  revenge  was  §hqt  by  the  son.  At  the  close  of  the 
evening  when  the  actors  appeared  before  the  curtain 
the  son  was  wildly  applauded,  while  the  father  was 
hissed.  A  boy  in  the  audience  who  saw  the  play  was 
so  much  impressed  by  it  that  the  following  day  when 
his  father,  a  hardworking  man  out  of  work,  in  a  mo- 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  1 7 

ment  of  irritation  raised  his  hand  against  the  mother 
the  boy  shot  and  killed  his  father  and  was  much  as- 
tonished to  find  that  he  was  not  regarded  2ls  a  hero 
by  the  police  or  the  public. 

In  the  smaller  theatres  there  was  little  or  no  pro- 
tection for  children.  In  one  theatre  the  proprietor, 
an  old  man  of  seventy-five,  enticed  little  girls  into  the 
theatre  by  showing  them  stage  costumes  and  machin- 
ery. He  was  arrested  and  accused  of  disorderly 
conduct  with  small  children.  In  another  theatre  a  jug- 
gler attracted  to  the  theatre  a  little  girl  and,  by  prom- 
ising to  show  her  some  of  his  magic  arts,  took  her  to  a 
cheap  hotel.    He  was  found  guilty  and  punished. 

After  the  first  investigation  of  the  theatres  the  Ju- 
venile Protective  Association  reported  constantly  to 
the  building  department,  the  department  of  health, 
the  Chief  of  Police  and  the  state  factory  inspector 
the  conditions  of  the  theatres  which  did  not  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  law.  In  consequence  there  was 
a  great  improvement  in  the  physical  condition  of 
the  theatres,  especially  in  the  exits  and  the  ventila- 
tion. 

Late  in  1909  the  licenses  of  the  smaller  theatres  were 
raised  from  one  hundred  dollars  to  two  hundred  dollars 
and  the  number  of  five  and  ten  cent  theatres  was 
thereby  reduced  from  425  to  335. 

In  addition  to  the  temptations  of  the  theatre  itself 


/ 


l8  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

the  Association  found  many  children  and  young  people 
who  had  fallen  into  serious  difficulties  through  their 
efforts  to  obtain  money  with  which  to  buy  tickets  for 
the  "show."  Some  of  these  efforts  were  singularly 
absurd,  perhaps  none  more  so  than  the  case  involving 
two  young  girls  who  were  sisters. 

Freda  and  Hilda  were  the  children  of  well-to-do 
German  people  who  lived  in  a  remote  portion  of  the 
city  in  a  small  house  which  was  slowly  being  paid  for 
by  the  united  efforts  of  all  the  members  of  the  family. 
The  girls  worked  in  a  candy  factory  at  a  weekly  wage 
of  $5.00  which  they  were  obliged  to  turn  over  in  their 
unopened  pay  envelopes  to  their  thrifty  mother 
every  Saturday  night. 

After  the  hard  day's  work  Hilda  and  Freda  were  al- 
ways tired  and  complained  bitterly  that  they  were 
not  allowed  to  go  to  dance  halls  or  theatres;  their  too- 
careful  mother  would  not  even  allow  their  young 
friends  to  visit  them,  for  that  interfered  with  the 
housework  and  sewing  which  she  expected  them  to  do. 
One  visitor  however  was  permitted — a  cousin  em- 
ployed in  the  office  of  a  dentist,  who  came  to  dinner 
every  Sunday  when  she  would  relate  funny  stories 
about  the  patients  and  their  sufferings.  She  also  told 
fabulous  tales  of  the  amount  of  gold  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  artificial  teeth  and  how  very  valuable  these 
crowns  must  be  since  the  dentist  charged  such  enor- 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  I9 

mous  prices  for  them,  one  tooth  sometimes  costing 
$40.00.  All  day  Sunday  the  talk  would  centre  about 
the  dentist,  the  enormously  valuable  stuff  with  which 
he  worked  and  the  rich  people  downtown  who  could 
buy  gold  teeth  at  pleasure. 

On  their  way  to  and  from  the  factory  Hilda  and 
Freda  would  often  stop  and  gaze  longingly  in  the  shop 
windows  where  were  displayed  the  pretty  things  which 
they  could  not  have,  bitterly  resenting  the  plain 
clothing  their  mother  provided  for  them;  or  they  would 
read  the  fascinating  posters  which  described  the  de- 
lights of  the  theatre  they  had  no  money  to  enter. 

One  momentous  day  they  decided  that  their  gray 
lives  were  unendurable  and  that  in  one  way  or  another 
they  must  get  the  money  with  which  to  buy  theatre 
tickets.  Their  cousin,  the  dentist's  assistant,  was 
their  one  Hnk  with  the  gay  world  and  they  remembered 
that  she  had  often  told  them  in  case  of  toothache  to 
come  to  her  kind  employer,  for  she  was  very  sure  that 
he  would  be  willing  to  treat  free  any  member  of  her 
family.  Around  this  offer  the  girls  evolved  a  scheme 
that  the  next  Saturday  afternoon  after  work  one  of 
them  would  pretend  to  have  a  bad  toothache;  that 
they  would  go  to  the  dentist  and  ask  to  have  the  tooth 
pulled  and  that  while  the  dentist  was  thus  engaged 
the  sister  would  steal  all  the  gold  crowns  she  could 
lay  her  hands  on.    Some  discussion  then  arose  as  to 


20  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

whose  tooth  should  come  out  and  when  it  was  decided 
to  draw  lots  for  it,  the  dubious  opportunity  fell  to 
Hilda. 

The  next  Saturday  afternoon  the  girls  set  out  for 
the  dentist's  office,  Hilda  a  trifle  lugubrious,  Freda 
quite  cheerful.  When  they  arrived  at  the  office,  Hilda 
explained  to  the  dentist  that  her  tooth  had  been  ach- 
ing so  badly  that  she  wanted  it  pulled  at  once.  The 
dentist  placed  her  in  the  chair,  examined  the  tooth, 
and  said  he  did  not  think  it  at  all  necessary  that  it 
should  come  out,  although  Hilda  insisted  that  she 
could  not  stand  the  terrible  pain  another  moment. 
While  the  doctor  was  examining  the  tooth,  Freda 
managed  to  steal  a  package  of  gold  foil,  also  a  few 
crowns  which  were  evidently  prepared  for  immediate 
use.  The  impatient  dentist  at  last  drew  the  tooth  and 
the  two  girls  left  the  office  and  made  their  way  directly 
to  a  pawnshop  in  order  to  turn  the  gold  and  crowns 
into  fabulous  sums  of  money.  An  officer  of  the  Juve- 
nile Protective  Association  saw  them  enter  the  shop, 
followed  them,  and  when  the  pawnbroker  hesitated 
to  accept  such  unusual  pledges,  she  persuaded  the 
girls  to  come  with  her  and  was  able  to  extract  the 
entire  story  from  them,  the  sisters  by  this  time  having 
become  rather  frightened,  Hilda  possibly  nervously 
upset  by  her  recent  experience.  Because  of  the  imme- 
diate return  of  the  stolen  goods  to  the  dentist's  office 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  21 

and  the  intervention  of  the  distracted  cousin,  the 
dentist  kindly  consented  to  overlook  the  theft.  It 
was  really  easier  to  release  the  girls  from  the  rigors  of 
the  law  than  from  the  rigors  of  family  discipline.  It 
required  many  visits  to  the  mother  in  order  to  per- 
suade her  that  she  must  permit  the  sisters  to  have 
some  recreation  and  must  provide  them  with  money 
to  that  end.  When  a  girl  is  willing  to  endure  the  tor- 
ture of  having  a  sound  tooth  extracted  in  order  to  go 
to  a  theatre,  it  is  certainly  a  revelation  of  youth's 
claim  to  pleasure,  which  will  not  be  denied. 

In  the  late  winter  of  191 1  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  undertook  another  investigation  of  the 
Chicago  theatres  when  an  encouraging  general  im- 
provement was  found.  Yet  one  difficulty  was  ap- 
parently insuperable,  that  many  of  them  are  situ- 
ated in  undesirable  localities  and  although  the  theatre 
itself  may  be  well  managed,  it  nevertheless  attracts 
a  number  of  young  girls  and  boys  into  a  neighbor- 
hood to  which  they  would  otherwise  have  no  oc- 
casion to  go.  The  theatre  itself  is  often  situated 
next  door  to  a  saloon  or  transient  rooming  house.  In 
fact,  it  is  so  often  in  the  same  building  with  the  latter 
that  the  phrase  '^A  Five  Cent  Theatre  Hotel"  has 
become  current.  It  seems  quite  impossible  to  control 
the  location  of  these  five  cent  theatres.  There  are, 
however,  many  improvements  which  could  be  made. 


22  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

We  need,  first,  an  ordinance  which  would  require 
a  theatre  to  obtain  a  license  for  the  place  and  not  for 
the  person  who  operates  it.  If  this  were  done  it  would 
prevent  a  repetition  of  the  following  incident:  Some 
time  ago  at  a  theatre  on  the  North  Side  the  proprietor 
was  in  the  habit  of  enticing  little  girls  into  the  theatre, 
promising  if  they  would  do  a  little  work,  such  as  dust- 
ing or  sweeping,  he  would  give  them  tickets  for  the  even- 
ing performance.  Under  this  pretense  he  assaulted 
14  little  girls.  He  was  arrested  and  prosecuted  by  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association,  which  had  many  wit- 
nesses to  testify  against  him.  Because  the  man  had 
great  political  influence  the  case  was  continued  from 
time  to  time  and  finally  the  jury  disagreed.  A  year 
and  a  half  elapsed  before  it  again  came  to  trial,  the 
proprietor  in  the  meantime  being  out  on  $6,000  bail. 
Although  he  was  forbidden  by  the  judge  to  go  inside 
his  theatre  he  was  repeatedly  seen  in  the  neighborhood, 
by  officers  of  the  Association,  conversing  with  young 
girls,  until  he  was  finally  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for 
seven  years.  After  his  first  arrest  the  license  for  the 
theatre  was  revoked  at  the  request  of  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association,  but  a  few  days  later  was  is- 
sued to  his  wife,  who  connived  at  his  immoralities. 
If  a  place,  not  a  person,  were  licensed,  it  would  be  im- 
possible after  the  revocation  of  a  license  to  have  it 
taken  out  again  by  a  friend  or  relative. 


CIVIC   PROTECTION   IN  RECREATION  23 

Second,  the  amateur  nights,  which  were  very  pop- 
ular and  which  are  occasionally  to  be  found  in  the 
five  cent  theatres,  should  be  abolished.  Girls  in  their 
craving  for  excitement  are  only  too  anxious  to  appear 
in  public.  They  give  the  little  stunts  which  they  have 
learned  and,  if  they  please  the  audience,  are  sometimes 
rewarded  by  pennies  which  are  thrown  to  them.  If 
they  fail  to  please,  they  are  pulled  off  the  stage  by  a 
large  hook.  The  amateur  nights  are  often  coarse  and 
vulgar.  The  theatres  should  not  be  permitted  to 
allow  the  children  to  appear. 

Third,  the  strain  on  the  eyes  in  the  cheap  theatres 
from  watching  the  motion  pictures  is  bad.  They 
should  be  shown  in  well-lighted  halls.  This  is  per- 
fectly possible  now  owing  to  the  invention  of  a  new 
device,  which  if  it  were  put  into  use  would  do  away 
with  many  opportunities  for  familiarity  now  afforded 
by  the  darkness. 

Fourth,  all  posters  and  advertisements  shown  out- 
side theatres,  or  advertisements  of  plays,  musical 
performances  or  operas,  should  be  passed  upon  by  the 
censorship  committee  and  signed  by  the  Chief  of  Police 
before  being  shown  or  posted  in  any  part  of  the  city. 

The  theatre  is  a  permanent  institution  which  plays 
a  large  part  in  the  social  life  of  every  city.  It  should 
be  encouraged  and  supported,  freed  from  all  objection- 
able features;  it  should  be  made  an  agency  for  whole- 


24  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

some  recreation,  culture  and  education  rather  than 
for  vice,  disorder  and  delinquency. 

In  all  of  our  large  cities  the  two  agencies  selling 
pleasure  which  draw  the  largest  number  of  young 
people  are  the  theatre  and  the  dance  hall.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  the  dance  halls  in  Chicago  attract  some 
evenings  as  many  as  86,000  young  people.  Young 
girls  go  to  these  dances  because  they  crave  the  ex- 
citement of  the  dance.  It  is  an  outlet  for  their  emo- 
tions, it  affords  a  forgetfulness  of  fatigue,  and  it  is  a 
safety  valve  for  their  surplus  energy. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  received  so 
many  complaints  regarding  dance  halls  from  mothers 
whose  children  were  attending  these  halls,  or  from 
neighbors  who  knew  about  the  conditions  existing 
there,  that  they  determined  upon  an  extensive  inves- 
tigation. The  burden  of  the  work  was  borne  by  two 
women  and  their  husbands  who  visited  practically  all 
the  public  dance  halls  in  Chicago.  The  four  investiga- 
tors mingled  with  the  men  and  girls,  sat  in  the  saloons, 
danced  in  the  halls,  talked  with  managers,  employers 
and  patrons,  and  openly  flirted  with  each  other. 
Their  observations  were  carefully  noted  on  cards  pre- 
pared for  the  purpose  and  filed  daily  at  the  office  of 
the  Association.  The  work  was  done  between  Novem- 
ber 13,  1910,  and  March  9,  191 1.  Within  that  period 
each  hall  was  visited  from  one  to  seven  times  and 


CIVIC  PROTECTION   IN  RECREATION  25 

328  halls  were  inspected.  The  results  of  this  investiga- 
tion show  that  the  public  dance  halls  of  Chicago  are 
largely  controlled  by  the  saloon  and  vice  interests. 
The  recreation  of  thousands  of  young  people  has  been 
commercialized  and,  as  a  result,  hundreds  of  young 
girls  are  annually  started  on  the  road  to  ruin,  for 
the  saloon  keepers  and  dance  hall  owners,  many  of 
whom  are  brewing  companies,  have  only  one  end  in 
view  and  that  is  profit. 

The  conditions  existing  in  the  dance  halls  and  in  the 
adjoining  saloons  transform  the  innocent  desire  for 
dancing  and  for  social  enjoyment  into  drunkenness, 
vice  and  debauchery.  Bar-keepers  and  prostitutes 
are  in  many  cases  the  only  chaperons  and  in  a  majority 
of  places  even  the  young  girls  and  boys  fresh  from 
school  are  plied  with  alcohol  and  with  suggestions  of 
vice  until  dancing  ceases  to  be  recreation  and  becomes 
flagrant  immorality. 

At  158  dances  there  were  police  present,  but  out  of 
the  202  policemen  found  on  duty,  at  only  17  dances 
did  they  render  good  service.  At  the  remaining  dances 
they  idly  witnessed  all  gradations  of  vice  from  the 
incipient  Uberties  of  the  young  and  immature  to  the 
grossest  sensuaHty  of  the  vice-ridden  "rounder.*'  In 
134  halls,  they  failed  to  interfere  when  the  grossest  and 
most  dangerous  forms  of  ''tough"  dancing  were  being 
practiced. 


26  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

If  one  of  our  newly  arrived  immigrant  mothers 
wanted  recreation  for  her  children,  might  she  not  con- 
sider that  our  licensed  dance  halls  opened  under  city 
regulations  and  protected  by  city  police  would  be 
a  safe  place  for  them?  Unfortunately  the  majority 
of  dance  halls  do  not  offer  safe  or  wholesome  amuse- 
ment for  young  people.  They  are,  in  fact,  a  disgrace 
to  our  cities  and  too  often  feeders  for  the  underworld. 
In  the  majority  of  these  halls  the  state  laws  and  the 
dty  ordinances  are  broken.  Minors  are  not  only  ad- 
mitted unaccompanied  by  their  parents,  but  in  146 
of  these  places  investigation  showed  that  liquor  was 
sold  openly  to  them.  All  the  laws  of  common  decency 
are  violated  and  dance  halls  are  resorted  to  by  evil- 
minded  men  and  women  seeking  victims.  The  pro- 
prietors of  these  places  either  connive  at  or  participate 
in  this  use  of  their  halls  and  no  effort  whatever  is  made 
to  protect  the  young  people. 

It  is  not  difl&cult  to  know,  when  one  is  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  a  dance  hall,  as  the  doorways,  dark  pas- 
sages and  alleyways  of  the  vicinity  are  filled  with 
young  men  and  girls  in  couples,  and  outside  the  halls 
there  are  always  girls  waiting  to  ask  men  who  are 
leaving  for  their  return  checks. 

Dances  are  advertised  by  posters  on  telegraph  poles 
or  in  saloon  windows  and  by  "pluggers,"  bright 
colored  cards  with  the  dance  announcement  on  one 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  2^ 

side  and  a  popular  song,  often  indecent,  on  the  other. 
These  are  distributed  in  the  halls  and  carefully  pre- 
served by  the  boys  and  girls.  In  one  district  the 
"pluggers"  announcing  the  Sunday  dances  were  given 
tc  people  as  they  were  leaving  the  churches. 

The  dances  may  be  divided  into  two  classes:  those" 
given  by  the  management  or  proprietors  of  the  halls  and 
those  given  by  clubs  and  societies.  At  the  former  the 
dangers  are  more  subtle.  The  halls  are  cleaner  and 
better  order  is  preserved.  Drinks  are  higher  priced 
but  more  intoxicating.  The  patrons  are  better  dressed 
and  there  is  an  assumption  of  decency.  But  these 
halls  serve  as  a  rendezvous  for  immoral  men  and 
women,  and  crowds  of  young  men  attend  with  the  sole 
aim  of  meeting  girls  for  immoral  purposes.  While 
many  of  the  club  dances  are  well  conducted,  the 
majority  of  them  are  marked  by  extreme  disorder  and 
open  indecency.  The  men  outnumber  the  women  at 
all  dances. 

Out  of  86,000  people  found  by  the  investigators  in 
278  dances,  in  the  majority  of  the  halls  the  boys  were 
between  the  ages  of  16  and  18  and  the  girls  between 
14  and  16,  the  very  age  at  which  pleasure  is  most 
eagerly  demanded  as  one  of  the  prerogatives  of 
youth. 

One  condition  is  general,— most  of  the  dance  halls 
exist  for  the  sale  of  liquor,  not  for  the  purpose  of 


28  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

dancing  which  is  of  only  secondary  importance;  190 
halls  had  saloons  opening  into  them  and  liquor  was 
sold  in  240  out  of  the  328  halls  and  in  the  others,  ex- 
cept in  rare  instances,  return  checks  were  given  to 
facilitate  the  use  of  the  neighboring  saloons.  At  the 
halls  where  liquor  was  sold,  practically  all  the  boys 
showed  signs  of  intoxication  by  twelve  o'clock,  pos- 
sibly because  it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  a  drink  of 
water  in  these  halls. 

The  waiters  and  employees  of  the  dance  halls  are 
only  too  ready  to  give  information  regarding  the  loca- 
tion of  disreputable  lodging  houses,  which  in  77  cases 
were  in  close  proximity  to  the  halls,  and  in  many  cases 
the  use  of  the  dance  hall  premises  for  immoral  pur- 
poses was  connived  at  by  the  management.  In  these 
halls  newcomers  are  treated  with  great  attention;  old 
men  are  polite  to  young  girls  but  their  first  effort  is 
to  get  the  girl  intoxicated.  In  one  case  the  investiga- 
tor saw  a  young  girl  held  while  four  boys  poured 
whiskey  from  a  flask  down  her  throat,  she  protesting 
half-laughingly  all  the  time  that  she  had  never  had 
anything  to  drink  before.  A  half  hour  later,  her  re- 
sistance gone,  she  was  seen  sitting  on  a  boy's  knees. 
Older  women — sometimes  prostitutes — treat  young 
country  boys  in  the  same  manner.  In  one  hall  a  young 
boy,  evidently  new  to  the  city,  was  seen  looking  for  a 
partner.   He  found  one,  a  prostitute,  who,  after  drink- 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  29 

ing  with  him  all  the  evening,  persuaded  him  to  give 
up  his  job.  At  the  end  of  a  week  she  induced  him  to 
go  with  her  to  St.  Louis  as  a  procurer  for  a  disorderly 
house.  In  187  of  the  halls  immoral  dancing  and 
open  embracing  were  indulged  in.  At  one  hall  it  was 
found  that  a  cash  prize  of  one  hundred  dollars  had 
been  offered  to  the  girl  who  at  the  end  of  the  month 
had  the  largest  number  of  drinks  placed  to  her 
credit. 

The  greatest  dangers  are  to  be  found  in  connection 
with  masquerade  and  fancy  dress  balls,  where  the 
costumes  often  permit  the  most  indecent  dressing  and 
where  prizes  are  awarded  for  the  best  costumes. 
These  prizes  consist  of  cheap  jewelry,  perfume,  cigars, 
and  liquor,  donated  by  the  neighboring  tradesmen. 
A  barrel  of  beer  is  usually  awarded  to  the  best  group 
of  men  and  a  dozen  bottles  of  wine  to  the  best  group 
of  girls.  A  quart  of  whiskey  is  the  usual  prize  for  a 
single  character. 

The  saloon  keeper  lives  and  thrives  by  the  sale  of 
liquor,  consequently  the  dances  are  short— four  to 
five  minutes;  the  intermissions  are  long— fifteen  to 
twenty  minutes,  thus  giving  ample  opportunity  for 
drinking.  In  the  halls  where  liquor  is  not  sold  the 
.  intermissions  are  short  and  the  dances  long.  Is  not 
this  an  argument  for  divorcing  the  sale  of  liquor  from 
the  dance  hall? 


30  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

In  these  same  halls  obscene  language  is  permitted, 
and  even  the  girls  among  the  habitues  carry  on  inde- 
cent conversation,  using  much  profanity,  while  the 
less  sophisticated  girls  stand  around  listening,  scan- 
dalized but  fascinated.  There  is  an  almost  universal 
custom  among  the  girls  of  keeping  their  powder  puffs 
in  the  top  of  their  stockings,  from  which  they  are  os- 
tentatiously taken  and  used  whenever  girls  wish  to 
attract  the  attention  of  young  men. 

Many  of  the  halls  are  poorly  lighted — 172  belong 
to  this  class.  There  is  very  little  protection  in 
case  of  fire — 97  halls  are  deficient  in  this  respect,  and 
the  over-crowding  renders  unsafe  even  those  which 
meet  the  requirements  of  the  building  department. 

In  139  halls  the  toilet  rooms  for  men  are  reached 
only  by  going  through  the  bar,  and  there  is  an  un- 
written code  that  the  man  who  avails  himself  of  this 
privilege  must  spend  money  for  a  drink.  In  233  halls 
the  floors  were  covered  with  expectoration  and  littered 
with  cards  and  handbills. 

There  is  but  little  ventilation — 170  halls  being  de-^s 
ficient  in  this  way.  In  some  cases  the  windows  were 
boarded  up,  apparently  on  the  theory  that  the  hotter 
it  was,  the  more  thirst  would  be  superinduced  and  the 
more  liquor  would  be  sold.  Even  in  the  halls  where 
the  windows  were  open  the  odor  of  the  over-heated 
people  mingled  with  the  tobacco  smoke  and  the  fumes 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN   RECREATION  3 1 

from  the  spilled  liquor  on  the  floor,  tables  and  chairs 
made  the  air  unbearable.  The  dust  arising  from  the 
floor,  caused  by  the  moving  feet  and  the  swirling 
skirts  of  the  dancers,  was  so  thick  that  it  made  breath- 
ing both  difiicult  and  dangerous.  Girls  frequently 
fainted  and  were  carried  out  or  laid  upon  the  floor, 
their  clothing  torn  open  and  cold  water  thrown  upon 
their  chests. 

The  case  of  a  decent  young  girl  who  went  to  the 
Dearborn  Hall  is  typical.  At  the  end  of  the  evening, 
finding  herself  worn  out  from  dancing  and  her  head 
heavy  from  the  liquor  to  which  she  was  unaccustomed, 
she  said  to  her  partner:  "Let  us  go  somewhere  and 
rest."  Fortunately  the  young  man  was  a  decent 
fellow  and  took  her  home  to  her  mother,  who,  fright- 
ened by  the  danger  which  the  girl  had  so  narrowly 
escaped,  came  the  next  day  to  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  to  complain  of  the  hall,  where  liquor  was 
sold  to  minors. 

In  the  winter  of  191 2  the  Association  kept  six  in- 
vestigators visiting  the  dance  halls  and  began  a  cam- 
paign against  the  proprietors,  bringing  many  of  them 
into  court  and  charging  them  with  the  sale  of  liquor 
to  minors. 

We  have  in  Chicago  an  iniquity  which  seems  to  be 
pecuUar  to  our  city  and  that  is  the  special  bar  permit. 
If  a  number  of  young  men  want  to  give  a  dance  they 


32  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

form  themselves  into  a  so-called  club.  They  rent  a  \ 
dance  hall  for  the  evening,  and  the  proprietor  who  has 
a  government  license  for  which  he  pays  $25.00  a 
year,  goes  with  them  to  the  City  Hall*  where  they 
take  out  this  special  bar  permit,  which  costs  $6.00 
and  which  allows  the  sale  of  liquor  from  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  to  three  o'clock  the  next  morning. 
The  saloons  are  obliged  to  close  at  one  o'clock  and 
if  there  are  any  disreputable  people  in  the  neighbor- 
hood who  want  liquor  after  that  hour  they  go  to  the 
dance  halls  for  it,  and  it  is  between  these  hours 
one  and  three  a.  m.  that  the  danger  to  young  people 
is  most  apparent. 

When  a  man  is  running  for  alderman  in  the  City  of 
Chicago  he  is  asked  by  the  United  Societies  to  sign  a 
pledge  which  states  that  if  he  is  elected  to  the  City 
Council  he  will  not  interfere  with  "personal  liberty" — 
that  phrase  so  dear  to  the  United  Societies — nor  will 
he  try  to  enforce  the  Blue  Laws  or  the  Sunday  Closing 
ordinance,  nor  yet  try  to  do  away  with  the  special' 
bar  permit.  Some  men  who  run  for  aldermen  will  not 
sign  this  pledge  but  the  majority,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
do  sign  it.  Our  city  ordinances  provide  that  no  club 
shall  take  out  more  than  six  special  bar  permits  in  one 
year,  yet  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  has  evi- 
dence in  several  cases  of  more  being  taken  out — one 
club  was  known  to  take  out  32!    The  ordinance  also 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  33 

provides  that  every  club  shall  be  investigated,  but  this 
is  not  done. 

We  have  a  state  law  which  provides  that  no  minors 
shall  be  admitted  to  a  hall  where  liquor  is  sold,  but 
this  law  is  practically  a  dead  letter  and  is  seldom  en- 
forced. We  should  have  a  law  providing  that  no  liquor 
shall  be  sold  in  any  dance  hall.  Young  people  do  not 
need  liquor  in  order  to  make  them  have  a  good  time. 
Detroit  has  recently  passed  an  ordinance  forbidding 
the  sale  of  liquor  in  any  place  of  amusement.  In 
San  Francisco  they  are  trying  the  experiment  of  danc- 
ing on  the  streets,  roping  off  a  block  where  the  pave- 
ment is  good  and  providing  chaperonage,  lights  and 
music.  The  cUmate  of  San  Francisco  is  better  adapted 
to  open  air  dancing  than  that  of  Chicago,  but  I  should 
very  much  like  to  see  the  experiment  tried  in  the 
summer  months.  On  the  other  hand,  much  could  be 
done  by  the  dance-hall  proprietors  under  the  existing 
laws  if  they  were  but  thoroughly  aroused  to  a  sense 
of  obligation  for  the  protection  of  their  young  patrons, 
as  our  own  experience  testifies. 

At  one  time  the  proprietor  of  a  disreputable  dance 
hall  came  to  the  office  of  the  Association,  saying  that 
he  had  seen  some  of  its  pubhshed  reports  in  regard  to 
the  dance  halls  and  that  he  felt  sure  he  was  not  con- 
ducting a  proper  place  for  young  people,  because 
owing  to  the  sale  of  liquor  and  the  excessive  drinking 


34  SAFEGUARDS   FOR  CITY   YOUTH 

many  young  girls  were  in  great  danger.  He  asked  the 
Association  for  advice  as  to  the  best  method  of  nmning 
his  hall.  He  was  told  that  he  must  close  his  saloon, 
abandon  his  wine-room,  separate  the  toilet  rooms  for 
men  from  those  for  women  and  put  in  drinking  foun- 
tains. 

This  he  agreed  to  do  and  did,  but  he  came  to  the 
office  of  the  Association  a  few  months  later  saying 
that  he  still  felt  that  his  hall  was  not  respectable,  as  at 
the  dances  given  there  liquor  was  sold  under  a  special 
bar  permit  and  girls  and  boys  were  drinking  too  much. 
He  asked  if  the  Association  could  not  send  some  one 
to  look  after  his  hall  and  said  that  he  would  be  very 
glad  to  pay  the  salary  of  such  an  official.  The  Asso- 
ciation gladly  complied  with  this  request,  and  placed 
a  social  worker  in  this  hall  who  has  been  paid  by  the 
dance-hall  keeper.  This  social  worker  became  friendly 
with  the  people  and  with  the  members  of  the  dubs  of 
the  neighborhood.  He  has  two  good  policemen  under 
his  direction,  to  assist  him  and  they  are  genuinely 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  young  people  who  at- 
tend the  hall.  Under  the  social  worker's  supervision 
the  dances  which  have  been  conducted  there  during 
the  past  two  years  have  been  thoroughly  respectable. 
Some  time  ago  this  dance-hall  keeper  came  to  the 
office  of  the  Association,  and  laying  down  his  check 
for  the  salary  of  the  worker,  said:  **It  pays  to  be  re- 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  35 

spectable,  for  I  am  now  renting  my  hall  more  than  I 
ever  did  before  and  I  have  no  difficulty  in  disposing  of 
it  on  Sundays  to  nice  people,  and  besides  I  can  sleep 
nights  when  I  think  of  the  girls." 

Kansas  City  has  established  a  department  of  pub- 
lic welfare,  and  part  of  the  business  of  this  department 
is  to  supervise  the  dance  halls  of  the  city  and  see 
that  they  comply  with  the  regulations  established  for 
their  conduct.  Cleveland  recently  has  passed  a  re- 
vised dance-hall  ordinance  which,  if  properly  enforced, 
will  eliminate  from  the  dance  halls  all  objectionable 
features  and  provide  decent  amusement  for  its  patrons. 
A  department  of  recreation  is  now  being  planned  in 
,.  JiMilwaukee. 

In  Cleveland  dance  halls  are  required  to  close  at 
half  past  twelve  o'clock,  but  it  does  not  seem  best  to 
limit  the  hours  of  pleasure  for  the  working  people  any 
more  than  for  those  who  can  afford  to  entertain  in  and 
patronize  the  best  hotels.  Neither  does  it  seem  wise 
to  bar  the  girl  under  sixteen  years  of  age  from  attend- 
ance at  dances  unaccompanied  by  parent  or  guardian, 
because  the  two  years  after  leaving  school,  i.  e.,  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen,  are  often  the 
years  when  the  monotony  of  the  factory  or  the  store 
makes  her  most  eager  for  the  excitement  furnished  by 
the  dance. 

If  there  could  be  established  in  Chicago  a  depart- 


36  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

ment  of  Recreation  and  if  we  could  secure  the  passage^ 
of  a  city  ordinance  properly  regulating  the  dance  halls, 
they  would  cease  to  be  places  where  decent  young 
people  are  too  often  decoyed  into  evil  and  where  their 
search  for  pleasure  may  so  easily  lead  into  disgrace, 
disease  and  crime. 

The  Association  has  had  other  experiences  of  gratify- 
ing cooperation  from  the  very  men  who  were  profiting 
from  existing  conditions.  In  the  efifort  to  do  away 
with  the  obscene  postal  cards  exhibited  in  so  many  of 
the  drug  stores  and  stationers'  shops,  the  Association 
destroyed  about  two  million  and  a  half  of  these  cards 
and  in  one  year  prosecuted  eighty  men  for  selling  them. 
In  this  we  had  the  help  of  the  Retail  Druggists'  Asso- 
ciation who  warned  all  of  their  members  that  they 
would  not  permit  them  to  show  or  to  sell  these  cards 
and  when  we  reported  to  the  Druggists'  Association  a 
member  who  was  breaking  this  rule,  they  either  ex- 
pelled him  or  prosecuted  him  themselves. 

In  an  effort  to  prevent  the  sale  of  cigarettes  to 
minors,  we  had  the  help  of  the  Retail  Fruit  Dealers* 
Association,  who  tried  to  help  us  prevent  the  small 
fruit  dealers  from  selling  cigarettes  to  children.  We 
also  had  a  somewhat  similar  experience  when  the 
Association  first  tried  to  prohibit  the  sale  of  liquor  to 
minors,  although  of  course  this  is  a  very  large  under- 
taking, involving  the  antagonism  of  many  powerful 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  37 

interests.  The  Association  warned  every  saloon  keeper 
in  the  city  that  it  was  against  the  law  to  sell  hquor  to 
minors.  We  printed  cards  in  the  language  of  the 
foreign  community  in  which  the  saloon  was  situated, 
calling  attention  to  this  law.  We  had  them  signed 
by  the  Chief  of  Police  and  they  were  hung  up  in  every 
saloon.  In  this  we  had  the  help  of  the  Liquor  Dealers' 
Protective  Association  who  warned  their  seven  thou- 
sand members  that  they  would  not  permit  them  to 
violate  this  law  and  also  that  if  prosecuted  by  our 
Committee  they  would  not  be  helped  or  upheld  by 
them.  We  found  that  this  made  a  great  difference 
to  the  saloon  keeper  in  regard  to  violating  the  law,  al- 
though in  one  year  we  prosecuted  239  saloon  keepers 
for  selling  liquor  to  minors. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Liquor  Dealers'  Protective  As- 
sociation, himself  the  owner  of  a  saloon,  was  much  in- 
terested in  our  efforts  to  enforce  the  law  and,  at  one 
time,  invited  me  to  address  the  saloon  keepers  of  the 
city.  This  was  an  interesting  experience,  as  the  large 
audience  of  men,  although  somewhat  hostile  at  first, 
warmly  responded  to  a  plea  for  fair  play  and  promised 
cooperation  in  the  protection  of  children.  My  recep- 
tion from  them  was  in  marked  contrast  to  that  ac- 
corded me  by  the  executive  committee  of  the  United 
Societies  whom  I  was  later  invited  to  address  on  the 
subject  of  selling  liquor  in  dance  halls.   Whether  it  was 


38  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

because  the  brewers  are  more  directly  involved  finan- 
cially or  because  I  was  asking  them  to  abandon  a 
lucrative  business  or  possibly  because  they  did  not 
come  into  direct  contact  with  the  situation  involved 
as  did  the  saloon  keepers,  I  cannot  tell,  but  certainly  it 
was  a  most  unpleasant  and  futile  meeting.  I  left  the 
room,  not  only  with  no  assurance  of  cooperation  but 
with  a  distinct  impression  that  the  committee  had 
no  wish  to  make  any  changes  which  might  interfere 
with  their  profits. 
O  While  this  attempt  at  cooperation  with  business 
interests  was  unsuccessful,  the  Association  in  another 
instance  discovered  that  such  interests  would  yield 
if  sufiicient  public  opinion  was  brought  to  bear  upon 
them.  The  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  after 
an  investigation  made  three  years  ago  discovered  that 
the  large  excursion  boats  which  were  crossing  Lake 
Michigan  and  carrying  sometimes  as  many  as  five 
thousand  people  were  violating  many  of  our  laws. 
Gambling  machines  and  devices  of  every  sort  were  run 
openly  upon  the  boats;  liquor  was  sold  to  minors,  while 
staterooms  were  rented  over  and  over  again  during 
the  night.  These  boats  were  largely  patronized  by 
young  people  who  sometimes  became  abominably 
drunk  and  indulged  in  orgies  impossible  to  describe. 

These  young  people  were  often  the  children  of  well- 
to-do  families,  whose  parents  assumed  that  a  boat 


\ 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  39 

excursion  in  the  daytime  was  a  safe  and  harmless  out- 
ing. The  so-called  day  boats  however  frequently  did 
not  land  until  after  midnight;  sometimes  not  until  four 
or  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  Association  called 
the  attention  of  the  managers  of  the  boats  to  these 
conditions,  insisting  that  with  a  crowd  of  several 
thousand  pleasure  seekers  on  land,  a  squad  of  police- 
men would  be  in  attendance,  while  on  the  boat  in  most 
cases  only  one  man  was  detailed  for  such  service  and 
even  he  often  connived  at  most  irregular  proceedings. 
The  decks  of  these  boats,  which  were  rarely  well 
lighted,  lent  themselves  to  the  grossest  immorality. 
The  contention  of  some  of  the  owners  that  liquor  was 
sold  only  in  original  packages  and  that  therefore  there 
was  less  temptation  to  drink  made  matters  even 
worse,  as  a  small  group  would  buy  a  bottle  of  whiskey 
and  not  stop  drinking  until  the  entire  amount  was  con- 
sumed. The  management  of  the  boats  felt  no  re- 
sponsibility when  their  young  patrons  opened  their 
dress  suit  cases  full  of  liquor  and  consumed  it  on  the 
open  deck.  For  such  law  breaking  it  was  impossible  to 
secure  a  conviction,  under  the  Contributing  to  Delin- 
quency Act,  which  would  have  been  easily  done  had 
like  conditions  existed  on  land.  The  city  ordinances 
were  enforcible  for  only  two  miles  out  from  shore. 
The  boat  then  reached  waters  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  state  of  Illinois  until  the  middle  of  the  Lake  was 


4©  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

reached  when  it  sailed  into  the  Michigan  territory 
and  two  miles  before  landing  was  under  the  ordinances 
of  its  approaching  port.  Without  the  help  of  the 
officers  of  the  boat,  our  investigators  of  course  were 
unable  to  say  exactly  where  any  given  ofifense  had 
been  committed. 

Because  the  Association  did  not  want  to  deprive 
young  people  of  the  legitimate  pleasure  of  Lake  excur- 
sions, we  were  unwilling  to  have  any  newspaper  pub- 
licity in  the  matter.  When,  however,  the  owners  who 
promised  over  and  over  again  to  start  reforms  made 
no  adequate  changes,  the  Association  asked  the  officers 
of  the  Political  Action  Committee  of  the  Union  League 
Club,  one  of  the  leading  men's  clubs  of  the  city,  to  take 
up  the  matter.  These  gentlemen  invited  some  of  the 
stockholders  of  these  boats  to  lunch  with  them  and 
laid  the  matter  before  them  so  forcibly,  even  men- 
tioning the  possibility  of  indictment  before  the  Grand 
Jury,  that  with  astonishing  rapidity  radical  changes 
took  place.  These  stockholders  unhappily  did  not 
immediately  enjoy  the  rewards  of  well-doing,  for  the 
first  boat  which  was  cleaned  up,  having  had  all  its 
staterooms  removed,  the  bar  minimized  and  put  in 
charge  of  a  new  type  of  **barkeep,"  the  police  super- 
vision increased  and  the  decks  well  lighted,  promptly 
went  to  the  bottom  of  the  Lake,  much  to  the  discour- 
agement of  the  newly  moralized  management. 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  4I 

Although  the  conditions  of  the  boats  have  improved, 
lapses  into  old  conditions  are  constantly  being  reported 
by  our  investigators.  At  the  present  moment  the 
Political  Action  Committee  of  the  Union  League  Club 
is  employing  distinguished  legal  talent  to  discover,  if 
possible,  some  method  by  which  legal  prosecutions 
may  be  made.  It  seems  reasonable  that  the  federal 
government  should  extend  its  jurisdiction  and  enforce 
laws  on  all  Lake  steamers. 

Better  cooperation  with  the  ownership  involved,  was 
secured  by  the  Association  in  our  attempt  to  regulate 
the  attendance  of  minors  at  the  poolrooms.  In  the 
first  investigation  made  by  the  Association  we  found 
thousands  of  boys  frequenting  the  poolrooms,  145  boys 
being  found  in  one  room,  although  a  city  ordinance 
forbids  the  presence  of  any  boy  under  eighteen  in  a 
pubUc  poolroom.  In  order  to  save  boys  from  the  over- 
whelming temptation  to  gamble  the  Association  suc- 
cessfully prosecuted  a  number  of  poolroom  keepers  for 
harboring  minors.  At  the  end  of  a  year  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Association  representing  the  poolroom  in- 
terests came  to  the  office  of  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  saying  that  they  felt  the  need  of  a  social 
secretary  in  order  to  keep  their  poolrooms  respectable 
and  asking  the  Association  to  make  recommendations. 
The  very  able  young  man  who  was  given  the  position 
cooperates  with  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association. 


42  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

He  has  placed  in  every  poolroom  in  the  city  a  notice 
in  various  languages  calling  the  attention  of  the  pool- 
room keeper,  as  well  as  his  patrons,  to  the  law. 

It  is  a  perfectly  natural  thing  for  young  boys  be- 
tween sixteen  and  twenty  years  old  to  seek  their  rec- 
reation in  poolrooms  and  it  is  as  impossible  as  it  is 
undesirable  to  do  away  with  them.  Their  number  in 
Chicago  is  increasing  every  year.  At  present  there  are 
1,535  poolrooms  as  over  against  21  open  club  rooms 
for  boys.  It  is  therefore  most  necessary  that  the  pool- 
rooms should  be  made  safe  and  decent  for  young  men 
and  boys. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  has  tried  to 
take  out  all  the  slot  machines  that  were  patronized 
by  children.  At  first  we  did  not  think  these  machines 
were  injurious  until  it  was  found  that  in  one  large 
public  school,  attended  mostly  by  foreigners,  nearly 
all  of  the  children  had  lost  their  school  books  and 
an  investigation  showed  that  they  had  pawned  or 
sold  these  books  in  order  to  have  money  with  which 
to  play  the  machines.  Little  children,  with  their 
eyes  glistening  and  their  cheeks  flushed  with  excite- 
ment, were  eagerly  staking  their  scanty  all  on  these 
gambling  devices. 

Young  children  throughout  the  city  are  systemat- 
ically trained  to  gamble  in  hundreds  of  candy  stores 
and  stationery  shops.    The  devices  are  many  and  the 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  43 

amounts  involved  are  not  large.  Usually  the  entrance 
fee  for  a  game  is  a  penny,  sometimes  more,  but  what- 
ever the  amount  the  method  and  purposes  of  the 
scheme  are  the  same  as  those  used  in  regular  gambling 
houses,  and  in  both  places  the  game  is  conducted  by 
the  proprietors.  This  form  of  gambling  is  profit- 
able to  the  small  shopkeeper  for  every  machine  is 
said  to  be  worth  from  six  dollars  to  ten  dollars  a 
week  to  the  owner  or  lessee.  The  chewing  gum  slot 
machines  are  the  most  popular  but  other  devices  are 
widely  used.  One  of  the  most  popular  is  a  modern 
raflfle  scheme  which  consists  of  a  large  cardboard,  with 
numbers  concealed  under  round  labels.  The  child 
chooses  a  number,  ranging  from  one  to  twenty.  The 
number  uncovered  indicates  the  amount  to  be  paid, 
which  varies  from  one  to  twenty  cents.  The  name  of 
the  purchaser  is  written  on  the  number  chosen  and 
when  all  the  numbers  have  been  sold  a  disc  at  the  top 
of  the  board  is  removed.  The  number  under  the  disc 
indicates  the  winner,  the  prize  is  usually  a  box 
of  candy  worth  anywhere  from  sixty  cents  to  a 
dollar.  The  winner  may  have  won  the  candy  with 
the  investment  of  a  penny  or  on  the  other  hand,  he 
may  have  spent  twenty  cents.  The  storekeeper's 
return  is  $2.10  and  for  him  there  is  no  hazard.  The 
device  most  usual  is  some  form  of  slot  machine.  The 
child  deposits  a  penny  and  gets  in  return  a  stick  of 


44  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY   YOUTH 

gum,  of  a  cheap  variety  and  altogether  inferior 
to  that  sold  in  the  market  for  the  same  price.  There 
is  a  chance,  however,  of  winning  five  sticks,  ten  sticks 
or  even  twenty-five  sticks  of  gum.  Other  slot  ma- 
chines are  so  arranged  that  the  dropping  of  a  penny 
gives  a  chance  of  winning  five  cents'  worth  of  candy. 
A  small  block  of  chocolate  is  the  inducement  to  which 
the  gamble  is  added.  During  the  Lenten  season 
Easter  eggs  were  offered  as  prizes.  Children  certainly 
acquire  bad  habits  from  these  gambling  devices.  A 
wrong  attitude  is  developed  and  the  desire  to  get 
something  for  nothing  is  stimulated.  The  machines 
are  immensely  popular.  In  many  neighborhoods, 
inmiediately  after  school,  the  shops  where  gambling 
is  conducted  are  thronged  with  crowds  of  eager 
children  anxiously  watching  the  progress  of  the  game. 
f  Healthful,  normal  play  and  exercise  in  the  open  air 
I  are  forgotten.  In  their  places  are  planted  the  seeds  of 
\  gambling  which  may  grow  and  in  later  years  develop 
\  into  a  ruling  passion. 

^-The  Association  asked  to  have  these  slot  machines 
removed  but  at  first  the  Chief  of  PoUce  refused  to  do 
so,  and  the  Association  removed  748  of  them  on  search 
warrants.  Later  a  case  was  carried  to  the  Superior 
Court  and  the  decision  was  rendered  that  the  slot 
machines  were  gambling  devices.  The  Chief  of  Police 
now  takes  them  out  whenever  reported  and  many  of 


CIVIC   PROTECTION   IN   RECREATION  45 

them  are  destroyed,  a  difficult  undertaking,  as  they 
are  made  largely  of  cast  iron.  Others,  upon  the  first 
complaint  are  removed  by  the  renting  company  and 
sent  to  other  cities. 

Unwarranted  dangers  to  young  people  seeking  rec- 
reation are  found  in  the  amusement  parks.  In  the 
first  place  the  gates  of  every  park  are  surrounded  by 
saloons  and  many  of  the  men  are  half  intoxicated  be- 
fore they  enter  the  park  itself.  Almost  all  of  the 
absurd  "amusements"  offered  require  a  separate  en- 
trance fee  and  young  girls  stand  about  unconsciously 
offering  their  chastity  in  order  to  be  invited  to  see 
"the  fat  folks'  convention,"  the  "Kansas  cyclone," 
or  the  "human  roulette  wheel"  for  the  man  who 
treats  them  too  often  demands  a  return  later  in  the 
evening.  Our  investigators  invariably  found  the 
worst  conditions  in  July  and  August  at  the  very  time 
when  people  arc  driven  by  the  heat  from  their  un- 
comfortable homes.  It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate 
the  eagerness  of  the  children  to  try  the  absurd  giant 
swings,  the  chutes  and  double  whirls.  The  following 
case  is  fairly  t)^ical:  A  httle  girl  who  had  been  a 
drudge  in  her  own  family  of  five,  after  the  death  of  her 
father  and  mother,  was  sent  to  an  orphanage  in 
Chicago  and  from  there  was  adopted  by  a  family  in 
which  there  were  seven  children  younger  than  she. 
As  soon  as  she  was  fourteen  and  had  her  school  cer- 


46  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

tificate,  she  was  put  to  work  in  a  pickle  factory  pasting 
labels  on  bottles.  For  two  years,  she  conscientiously 
turned  in  her  pay  envelope  unopened,  dressing  in 
the  clothes  obtained  for  her  at  the  Salvation  Army 
stores  by  her  foster  father.  She  was  a  pathetic  look- 
ing little  object  in  the  ill-fitting  clothes  and  she 
longed  for  pretty  things  and  for  some  amusement. 
One  day  she  was  sent  from  the  pickle  factory  with 
$2.50  to  buy  some  stamps  at  the  nearest  post  office. 
On  the  way  she  met  a  friend  who  asked  her  to  go  to 
one  of  the  large  amusement  parks.  She  started  to 
say  that  she  had  no  money  but,  looking  down  in  her 
grimy  little  hand,  she  saw  the  $2.50.  The  temptation 
was  too  great;  she  went  to  the  amusement  park  and 
spent  there  a  long  and  happy  day  and  evening.  She 
cried  all  night  when  she  thought  of  what  she  had  done 
and  the  next  day  returned  to  the  pickle  factory  telling 
truthfully  of  her  theft  and  offering  to  work  for  nothing, 
if  they  would  only  forgive  her.  This  she  was  allowed 
to  do  and  at  the  end  of  the  week  she  cheerfully  took 
the  beating  which  her  foster  father  gave  her  for  not 
bringing  home  her  week's  wages. 

AH  students  of  municipal  affairs  agree  that  every 
large  city  should  have  morales  police,  of  whom  a  cer- 
tain number  should  be  women,  if  it  would  properly 
protect  young  girls  for  whose  unwary  feet  so  many 
pitfalls  are  spread,  if  it  would  deal  adequately  with 


CIVIC   PROTECTION   IN   RECREATION  47 

prostitution,  that  grave  menace  to  health  and  morals, 
if  it  would  treat  even  decently  the  women  who  are 
arrested  for  some  shght  offense,  brought  into  the 
poHce  courts  and  there  too  often  treated  with  con- 
tumely and  contempt. 

We  need  women  police  in  the  theatres  and  dance  ^ 
halls  of  every  city  to  watch  the  girls  who  attend  these 
entertainments  and  who  accept  from  young  men  in- 
vitations offered  with  disreputable  intentions. 

Women  police  should  be  stationed  on  pleasure  boats 
and  bathing  beaches  and  should  ever  be  on  the  alert 
for  conditions  which  demoralize  children.  We  need 
women  police  in  our  amusement  parks  to  mingle  with 
the  crowds  at  the  gates  and  to  protect  young  girls. 
We  need  women  police  in  such  places  to  follow  girls 
who  are  seen  going  to  lonely  parts  of  the  parks  ac- 
companied by  young  men.  In  fact,  we  need  women 
police  to  chaperon  the  girls  in  all  public  places  where 
the  danger  to  young  people  is  great. 

We  should  have  in  our  station  houses  women  police 
in  whose  charge  the  girls  should  be  placed.  Women 
police  should  accompany  the  girls  to  their  trials  and 
stand  up  with  them  when  they  are  subjected  to  the 
harassing  questions  so  frequently  put  to  them  by  at- 
torneys, and  women  poHce  should  take  the  giris  to  the 
institutions  to  which  they  are  committed  by  the 
Court. 


48  SAFEGUAIUDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

The  work  of  the  woman  police  officer  would  not  be 
very  different  from  that  of  the  woman  probation  offi- 
cer. The  Juvenile  Court  officers  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  investigating  the  homes  in  their  neighbor- 
hoods and  of  watching  their  wards  to  see  that  they 
attend  school  or  are  at  work,  taking  charge  of  the 
children  after  they  have  become  delinquents.  It  thus 
would  be  only  one  more  step  to  have  women  police 
who  would  lessen  the  work  of  the  probation  officers  by 
"  carefully  watching  for  those  causes  which  lead  children 
into  the  courts  by  reporting  these  cases  to  the  proper 
authorities,  and  by  carefully  supervising  all  places  of 
amusement. 

Women  truant  officers,  attached  to  the  compulsory 
education  department,  the  women  adult  probation 
officers  attached  to  the  Municipal  Courts,  the  women 
factory  inspectors,  the  women  sanitary  inspectors  of 
the  health  department,  the  women  school  nurses, 
the  women  supplied  by  the  Travelers'  Aid  Association, 
the  officers  of  the  Immigrants'  Protective  League,  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association,  and  all  other  officers 
paid  by  private  organizations  are  doing  valiant  work 
for  the  young  people  of  our  cities,  but  we  need  the 
*^oUce  power  which  the  city  might  vest  in  women 
^  trained  for  the  work,  giving  them  the  authority  to 
cope  with  certain  dangerous  situations  with  which 
private  organizations  have  tried  in  vain  to  deal. 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  49 

Women  police  are  not  needed  to  handle  crowds,  to 
regulate  street  traffic,  to  arrest  drunkards  and  crim- 
inals, but  they  are  sorely  needed  in  order  that  they 
may  adequately  protect  the  thousands  of  children 
and  young  people  who  every  day  are  exposed  to  the 
dangers  of  unsupervised  and  disreputable  places  of 
amusement  and  for  whose  safety  and  welfare  the  city 
is  responsible. 

Chicago  now  has  20  women  police,  recently  ap-\ 
pointed,  who  have  been  assigned  to  the  dance  halb, 
amusement  parks  and  bathing  beaches.  Through 
their  efforts  the  dance  halls  have  been  much  improved 
and  the  dangers  to  young  people  in  them  greatly 
lessened. 

Happily  we  have  in  Chicago  our  fifteen  magnificem) 
field  houses  connected  with  the  small  parks  and  in  the  , 
districts  where  these  are  situated  delinquency  has 
decreased  from  24  to  70  per  cent.  We  need  more 
parks  and  playgrounds,  swimming  pools,  athletic 
fields  and  gymnasiums;  we  need  to  make  over  the 
gangs,  in  the  interests  of  better  citizenship,  for  at 
present  the  boy  who  is  the  successful  gang  leader  to- 
day, is  in  training  for  the  political  boss  of  to-morrow. 
As  to  the  working  girl  who  goes  back  at  night  affer  a 
long  day  in  the  shop  or  the  factory ^to  the  place  that 
she  calls  home,  shall  we  say  to  her,  "Think  only  of 
your  work,  stifle  your  desire  for  pleasure  or  else  takq 


50  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

that  which  is  bad; "  or  shall  we  say  to  her,  "Laugh  and 
dance  and  sing,  and  be  merry,  for  joy  is  the  heritage 
of  youth,  and  the  city,  the  protector  of  her  children, 
has  opened  for  you  many  avenues  of  pleasure,  any 
one  of  which  you  may  safely  enter?" 

We  have  291  public  schools  in  Chicago  and  166 
parochial  schools,  yet  last  winter  only  25  of  these 
schools  were  opened  two  evenings  a  week  by  the  Board 
of  Education  for  purposes  of  public  recreation.    The 
other  schools  are  open  only  for  five  hours  a  day,  five 
days  in  the  week,  and  our  forty-miUion-dollar  plant  is 
therefore  only  used  for  1,100  hours  a  year,  while  the 
children  for  whom  these  schools  are  intended,  spend 
their  time  and  secure  their  recreation  in  nearby  dance 
/  halls  and  saloons.    Professor  Patten,  in  his  "Basis  of 
^  I   Civilization,"  says  that  "we  have  been  trying  to  sup- 
\  press  vices  when  we  should  have  been  releasing  vir- 
/l  tues;"  and  if  this  be  true,  out  of  the  streets  and  con- 
/      gested  centres  will  be  bom  the  parks  and  the  play- 
grounds, and  from  the  five  cent  theatre  will  be  evolved 
one  that  will  educate  as  well  as  entertain,  and  from 
the  disreputable  dance  halls  will  come  a  decent  place 
of  amusement  where  boys  and  girls  can  meet  together 
to  enjoy  clean  wholesome  pleasures. 

One  may  easily  be  reminded  of  the  old  story  of  the 
Argonauts,  who  took  Orpheus  with  them  on  their  long 
journey  across  the  sea  because  they  knew  that  they 


CIVIC  PROTECTION  IN  RECREATION  51 

must  pass  the  islands  where  the  sirens  sang  so  charm- 
ingly that  many  sailors  had  been  lured  to  their  de- 
struction. The  plan  was  successful;  Orpheus  with  his 
lyre  made  such  beautiful  music  that  it  soared  above 
the  voices  of  the  sirens,  and  the  sailors  went  on  their 
way  happy  and  contented. 


CHAPTER  in 

LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY 

The  attention  of  the  Association  was  first  called  to 
the  moral  conditions  in  the  department  stores  through 
the  complaints  of  the  dangers  found  in  the  waiting 
rooms,  especially  to  out-of-work  girls  who  were  prone 
to  gather  there.  An  investigation  disclosed  large 
numbers  of  young  girls  in  the  waiting  rooms  of  the 
State  Street  stores  who  came  every  day  to  read  the 
morning  papers  and  look  for  *' Want"  advertisements. 
After  they  went  out  to  answer  these  **Want  ads"  in 
the  morning  papers,  they  would  come  back  again  at 
noon  to  read  the  afternoon  papers,  thus  spending  most 
of  the  day  there.  We  found  that  many  men  and 
women  went  to  these  waiting  rooms  for  evil  purposes. 
They  would  get  into  conversation  with  the  girls  by 
offering  a  newspaper  or  other  small  courtesy  and  some- 
times they  would  extend  an  invitation  to  luncheon. 
One  young  Hungarian  girl  who  went  out  to  luncheon 
with  a  young  man  the  first  time  s^e  met  hinvin  one 
of  these  waiting  rooms  was 'Rescued  from  a  disrep- 
utable house  a  month  later. 

In  three  weeks'  time  our  officer  who  made  this  in- 
52 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  53 

vestigation  arrested  and  convicted  17  men  and  3 
women  who  were  plying  their  trade  in  department 
store  waiting  rooms.  The  Association  conferred  with 
the  managers  of  all  the  stores  who  were  of  course  most 
anxious  to  cooperate  and  to  stop  this  practice.  They 
adopted  our  recommendations  in  almost  every  in- 
stance, putting  on  more  matrons  of  a  type  capable 
of  exercising  some  kind  of  chaperonage.  Through 
the  effort  of  the  Eleanor  Association  a  free  employ- 
ment bureau  for  girls  was  afterwards  opened  down- 
town with  large  waiting  rooms  where  the  girls  could 
sit  and  read  the  newspapers  and  through  which  situa- 
tions could  be  obtained  for  them. 

During  this  investigation  of  the  waiting  rooms,  it 
was  found  that  the  girls  regularly  employed  in  the 
department  store  itself  were  surrounded  by  many 
dangers.  At  the  time  of  the  investigation,  the  ten- 
hour  law  for  women  had  not  yet  been  passed  in  Illmois 
and  the  excessive  fatigue  induced  by  overwork, 
coupled  with  the  minimum  of  time  for  leisure  and 
recreation,  often  makes  it  difficult  for  girls  to  with- 
stand the  temptations  which  press  hard  upon  them, 
and  which  lead  to  a  moral  as  well  as  a  physical  break- 
down. This  is  doubly  true  in  the  department  stores 
where  girls  work  surrounded  by  the  luxuries  which 
they  all  crave  and  where  they  receive  a  wage,  in- 
adequate for  a  life  of  decency  and  respectability. 


54  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

There  are  15,000  women  employed  in  the  down- 
town department  stores  of  Chicago  and  approximately 
10,000  more  in  the  outlying  neighborhood  depart- 
ment stores.  The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  of 
Chicago  was  desirous  of  getting  at  the  working  and 
living  conditions  of  such  girls,  and  in  February,  1910, 
employed  a  woman  investigator  who  was  to  make 
acquaintance  with,  and,  if  possible,  learn  the  stories  of 
200  department  store  girls,  provided  these  stories 
could  be  procured  in  such  a  way  that  the  girls  would 
not  know  they  were  being  interviewed.  As  far  as 
possible  a  general  outline  was  followed  in  each  inter- 
view, including  questions  about  hours  of  work,  wages, 
physical  and  mental  strain,  home  conditions,  and  op- 
portunities for  study  and  recreation. 

The  200  girls  interviewed  worked  in  30  department 
stores,  12  in  the  downtown  district,  18  in  other  parts 
of  the  city;  the  girls  were  almost  all  American  born, 
the  average  age  being  19  years;  82  of  these  girls  will- 
ingly gave  their  names  and  addresses.  They  were  al- 
most without  exception  nice  girls,  good-looking  and 
well  dressed,  for  the  rules  of  the  department  stores  are 
strict  in  this  respect  and  require  that  the  employees 
shall  be  "clean  and  neat  in  appearance  and  avoid  ex- 
travagance or  display."  Every  woman  knows  that 
simplicity  is  costly  and  if  a  girl  must  appear  each 
morning  neat  and  well  dressed,  she  must  spend  her 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  55 

Sundays  at  least,  and  very  often  her  evenings,  in 
carefully  cleaning,  pressing,  washing  and  mending 
her  clothes,  which  means  of  course  that  she  is  not  able 
to  devote  her  leisure  time  to  cultivation  or  recreation. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  interesting  things  devel- 
oped by  the  investigation  was  that  173  of  the  girls 
lived  at  home,  and  of  these  126  paid  their  entire  wages 
every  week  into  the  family  exchequer;  of  those  re- 
maining 36  paid  from  $2.50  to  $6.00  per  week  for  their 
home  board  and  only  11  had  the  entire  use  of  their 
own  money. 

The  salaries  of  the  girls  varied  from  $2.50  to  $11.00 
a  week;  7  of  the  girls  received  $3.50  per  week  and  less; 
33  received  $4.00  to  $5.50;  54  received  $6.00;  68  re- 
ceived $6.50  to  $8.00;  19  received  from  $8.50  to  $10.00 
and  one  received  $11.00;  the  balance  were  paid  on  a 
commission  basis. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  if  a  girl  does  not  live  at 
home  she  cannot  live  on  less  than  $8.00  per  week,  for 
she  must  pay  $1.50  to  $2.00  a  week  for  her  room, 
$3.00  for  her  board,  60  cents  for  her  carfare  and  90 
cents  for  luncheons;  this  leaves  her  only  $1.50  or  $2.00 
for  clothes,  doctors,  dentists,  Hterature  and  recreation. 

The  girl  who  Hves  at  home  and  who  gives  her  wages 
to  her  mother,  is  of  course  protected  in  that  she  is 
sheltered  and  fed,  but  the  girl  who  is  not  living  at 
home  is  obliged  to  rent  the  cheapest  room  she  can 


56  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

find  from  a  landlady  who  is  utilizing  every  possible 
inch  of  space  for  lodgers;  the  girl  is  able  to  rent  only 
a  small  hall  bedroom,  badly  lighted,  inadequately 
ventilated  and  poorly  furnished,  and  it  is  only  a  short 
time  before  impure  air  and  improperly  cooked  food 
produce  an  anaemic  condition  which  offers  a  fertile 
field  for  all  disease. 

A  few  of  the  large  department  stores  have  a  Sick 
Benefit  Association,  which,  docking  twenty-five  to 
thirty-five  cents  per  month  from  the  clerks'  wages  for 
sick  benefits,  entitles  the  employees  to  half-pay  if  ill 
for  a  short  time.  No  one  is  eligible  for  this  Associa- 
tion unless  she  has  been  in  the  employ  of  the  store 
for  one  year.  Almost  all  of  the  stores  dock  the  full 
pay  when  the  girls  are  off  duty. 

The  majority  of  the  stores  require  their  girls  to  be 
on  duty  at  8:00  a.  m.;  this  means  that  the  girl  must 
rise  at  6:30;  the  average  time  for  luncheon  is  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour;  the  usual  time  for  leaving  in  the 
larger  stores  is  6:00,  sometimes  6:30  p.  m.  From  the 
downtown  stores  the  average  length  of  time  required 
to  reach  home  is  one  to  one  and  a  half  hours;  the  girl 
clerk  works  from  9  to  10  hours  a  day,  but  the  ride  in 
the  trolley  often  makes  a  day  of  ten  and  a  half  to 
eleven  and  a  half  hours. 

The  long  hours  and  constant  standing  of  the  depart- 
ment store  girl  make  nourishing  food  a  necessity,  but 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  57 

this  she  cannot  always  procure.  The  majority  of 
these  girls  spend  from  ten  to  fifteen  cents  a  day  for 
luncheon,  which  usually  consists  of  coffee  and  dough- 
nuts, or  coffee  and  pie,  or  something  similar.  One  in- 
vestigator, for  a  period  of  a  month,  attempted  to  eat 
the  same  luncheon  which  she  saw  being  taken  by  the 
department  store  girls,  but  at  the  end  of  that  time 
she  was  obliged  to  discontinue,  as  her  digestion  was 
upset  and  she  felt  the  need  of  more  nourishing  food. 
Yet  out  of  her  modest  income  the  department  store 
girl  cannot  afford  to  spend  than  more  ten  or  fifteen 
cents  for  her  noonday  meal. 

One  young  girl  who  did  not  speak  English  very  well 
was  engaged  as  a  bundle  wrapper  in  a  department 
store  at  $2.50  per  week;  she  was  obliged  to  support 
herself  and  when  found  by  the  Protective  Association 
was  paying  $1.50  for  a  hall  bedroom,  walking  to  and 
from  her  work  to  save  carfare,  in  shoes  literally  with- 
out soles  and  endeavoring  to  satisfy  her  hunger  on  the 
remaining  dollar  and  with  the  food  given  away  at 
demonstration  counters. 

The  department  store  girl  is  much  more  subject  to 
temptation  than  is  the  girl  who  works  in  the  factory, 
for  the  latter  is  more  protected,  during  her  working 
hours  coming  in  contact  only  with  her  fellow  workers, 
while  the  department  store  girl  meets  a  large  number 
of  other  people  and  is  constantly  surrounded  by  the 


58  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

articles  which  are  so  dear  to  the  feminine  heart.  She 
sees  passing  and  repassing  all  day  women  who  are 
gorgeously  arrayed  in  the  very  kind  of  clothes  that 
she  naturally  covets  and  she  encounters  at  least  three 
obvious  dangers. 

First,  she  may  be  accosted  and  tempted  by  a  well- 
dressed  good-looking  woman,  keeper  of  a  disreputable 
house  who  will  engage  her  in  conversation  and  prob- 
ably invite  her  to  her  house.  As  illustrating  this  first 
danger,  a  young  girl  working  in  the  cloak  department 
of  one  of  our  large  department  stores  waited  upon  a 
well-dressed  woman  who  was  apparently  accompanied 
by  her  daughter.  She  purchased  a  cloak  and  engaged 
the  young  clerk  in  conversation,  telling  her  that  she 
looked  hot  and  tired  and  asked  her  if  she  would  not 
like  to  go  out  to  luncheon.  The  girl,  seeing  no  harm, 
accepted  the  invitation.  A  few  days  later  the  two 
women  appeared  again  and,  saying  that  they  had 
taken  a  fancy  to  the  young  girl  invited  her  to  spend 
Sunday  with  them  at  their  apartment.  They  prom- 
ised to  call  for  her  when  the  store  closed  and  take  her 
to  their  home.  Needless  to  say,  the  so-called  home 
was  a  disreputable  house. 

Second,  the  girl  is  often  at  the  mercy  of  the  man 
who  is  recruiting  for  a  disreputable  house.  He  may 
purchase  articles  from  her  and  make  insulting  re- 
marks, while  at  the  same  time  he  makes  up  his  mind 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  59 

as  to  whether  he  will  be  able  to  pursuade  her  to  enter 
an  immoral  life.  It  frequently  happens  that  if  a 
girl  refuses  to  have  any  conversation  with  the  man 
outside  of  business  communication,  he  reports  her  as 
impertinent  to  the  manager  or  floorwalker  and  many 
of  the  girls  say  that  in  a  number  of  stores,  as  the  re- 
sult of  such  a  charge,  they  are  often  dismissed  without 
a  chance  to  even  give  the  other  side  of  the  story. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  second  danger,  a  young  girl 
employed  at  the  ribbon  counter  in  one  of  the  depart- 
ment stores  was  accosted  by  a  young  man  who  pur- 
chased several  yards  of  ribbon  and  then  invited  her 
to  lunch  with  him,  telling  her  that  if  she  had  a  friend 
he  would  bring  his  chum  and  they  would  have  a  party 
of  four.  The  girl,  starved  for  pleasure  and  anxious 
for  some  excitement  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  her 
day,  found  a  girl  friend  and  they  both  accepted  the 
invitation.  The  girls  lunched  with  the  young  men 
several  times  a  week  for  three  months,  and  then  they 
were  also  invited  out  to  dinner;  finally,  one  night  the 
two  couples  became  separated  and  the  girls,  who 
had  drunk  too  much  wine,  found  themselves  later  on 
ruined  and  deserted. 

The  outlying  or  neighborhood  department  stores 
are  located  all  over  the  city,  several  miles  from  the 
large  stores  on  South  State  Street;  many  of  them  are 
in  districts  settled  by  foreigners,  where  women  find 


6o  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

it  easy  to  shop  in  their  own  neighborhoods,  thus  saving 
carfare  and  where  they  can  negotiate  their  purchases 
in  their  own  language.  These  stores  supply  every 
want  for  the  famiUes  in  the  neighborhood,  from  stoves 
and  furniture  to  clothing  and  musical  instruments; 
girls  who  live  in  the  neighborhood  become  the  sales- 
women and  are  usually  required  to  know  one  other 
language  besides  English.  Many  of  the  women  do 
their  shopping  in  the  evening,  leaving  their  husbands 
to  look  after  the  children,  and  in  these  stores  when  the 
investigation  was  made  the  girls  were  working  from 
8:00  a.  m.  to  9:00  p.  m.  three  nights  in  the  week, 
from  8:00  a.  m.  to  10:00  p.  m.  or  11:00  p.  m.  on 
Saturday  and  8  :oo  a.  m.  to  6  :oo  p.  m.  two  days  in  the 
week,  thus  giving  them  only  two  free  evenings;  they 
also  often  work  all  or  part  of  Sunday.  It  was  found, 
however,  that  almost  without  exception  girls  pre- 
ferred to  work  in  these  outlying  stores,  because  they 
could  live  in  the  neighborhood  and  avoid  the  long 
street  car  rides,  and  they  agreed  that  to  be  packed 
into  a  street  car  an  hour  every  morning  and  night, 
seldom  finding  a  seat  and  if  one  were  found,  having 
people  hanging  over  them  and  leaning  against  them, 
was  much  more  tiring  than  the  work  of  the  entire  day. 
Another  reason  given  for  preferring  the  smaller 
stores  was  that  it  was  possible  to  get  home  for  luncheon 
and  supper,  also  that  in  the  small  department  stores 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  6 1 

the  customer  would  almost  invariably  explain  why 
she  was  making  the  purchase  and  this  information 
with  other  friendly  conversation  would  add  interest 
and  excitement  to  the  sale  of  a  kind  which  was  lacking 
in  the  downtown  stores. 

The  practice  of  keeping  these  stores  open  in  the 
evening  is  due  more  to  competition  than  to  the  real 
needs  of  the  customers.  In  several  districts  where  the 
stores  had  all  agreed  .to  close  on  a  Sunday  or  on  a  cer- 
tain night  in  the  week,  the  managers  stated  that  there 
had  been  no  loss  of  trade,  for  the  neighborhood  had 
learned  to  adapt  itself  to  the  change. 

With  these  long  hours  of  work,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  173  of  the  girls  complained  that  they  were  always 
tired.  Many  of  them  stated  that  their  backs  ached 
from  the  constant  standing,  as  they  were  not  encour- 
aged to  sit  down  even  when  seats  were  provided; 
that  they  were  often  obHged  to  slip  off  their  shoes  and 
that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  get  them  on  again 
at  night  because  of  their  swollen  feet;  that  many  of 
them  had  to  sit  with  their  feet  in  hot  water  after  they 
reached  home  and  that  they  were  almost  always  too 
tired  to  read,  too  tired  to  eat  and  sometimes  even  too 
tired  to  sleep. 

A  girl  of  twenty-two  who  had  worked  for  ten 
years  in  a  large  department  store,  first  as  cash  girl, 
and  later  as  clerk,  gave  up  her  position  because 


62  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

she  could  endure  it  no  longer;  she  earned  $7.00  a  week, 
on  which  she  helped  support  her  mother  and  two 
younger  children;  she  said  that  none  of  her  money 
went  for  shows,  dances,  ice  creams,  or  anything  frivo- 
lous; she  knew  the  value  of  a  dollar  because  she  worked 
hard  enough  to  earn  it;  she  never  read,  as  she  was 
always  **too  tired" — so  tired  that  when  she  went 
home  at  night  she  felt  as  though  she  must  scream. 
She  had  always  hoped  to  marry  and  have  a  home  of 
her  own,  but  she  felt  that  she  couldn't  stand  the  work 
much  longer;  she  must  have  some  amusement;  she 
never  had  even  her  Sundays,  as  she  had  to  spend  the 
entire  day  cleaning  up  her  wardrobe;  her  greatest 
pleasure  was  to  go  to  an  occasional  dance,  although 
she  could  not  afford  to  go  unless  invited,  and  was  con- 
scious that  she  was  not  meeting  the  best  type  of  young 
man  in  the  pubUc  dance  halls. 

The  following  is  a  typical  story  of  a  girl  who  lived 
with  her  family  in  Wisconsin.  When  her  mother  and 
father  died,  the  girl  was  obliged  to  leave  high  school 
and  to  go  to  work;  there  was  nothing  to  be  found  in 
the  httle  country  town  where  she  lived  and  she  came 
to  Chicago  and  secured  work  at  $5.50  per -week  in  the 
tinware  department  in  the  basement  of  a  large  de- 
partment store  on  South  State  Street;  coming  from 
the  outdoor  hfe  of  the  country,  she  found  it  very  diffi- 
cult to  work  where  the  air  was  bad  and  where  there 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  63 

was  only  electric  light.  "The  easiest  thing  I  do," 
she  said,  "is  to  wait  on  the  trade,  but,  my!  it  is 
hard  to  haul  down  and  lift  the  tinware,  move  the  pots 
and  kettles,  take  them  down  from  shelves  and  put 
them  back  again,  move  them  from  one  stand  to  an- 
other and  get  ready  for  sales  days;  they  make  the 
girls  do  all  this  lifting  and  it  is  really  terrible  how  we 
do  have  to  work  down  in  this  basement.  I  have  been 
here  in  Chicago  a  year  and  have  only  met  one  family 
of  nice  people.  I  do  not  have  time  to  make  acquaint- 
ances. I  love  to  read,  but  I  have  no  chance  to  get 
library  books;  all  I  see  is  an  occasional  paper.  I  get 
home  so  late  that  I  am  too  tired  to  go  out  at  night  and, 
besides,  I  have  to  wash  and  mend  my  clothes.  I  wish 
people  would  just  come  and  live  in  this  basement  and 
they  would  see  that  Ufe  down  here  is  not  very  pleas- 
ant." 

In  many  of  the  department  stores,  especially 
during  the  holiday  season,  the  girls  are  required  to 
work  all  the  evening,  often  working  13  hours  a  day  or 
more  for  the  two  weeks  before  Christmas.  For  this  no 
extra  wage  is  paid,  except  that  they  receive  from 
25  to  50  cents  supper  money  in  the  larger  stores. 
All  of  the  stores  make  large  profits  at  the  holiday 
season,  but  they  are  made  at  the  expense  of  thousands 
of  employees,  whose  weary  feet  and  aching  backs  are 
ihe  result  of  the  mad  rush  on  the  part  of  thousands  of 


64  SAFEGUARDS   FOR   CITY   YOUTH 

Christian  people  who  are  thus  seeking  to  express  the 
kindliness  and  goodwill  which  our  Christmas  com- 
memorates ! 

One  Christmas  Eve,  at  eleven  o'clock,  when  a  street 
car  was  full  of  young  shop  giris  who  had  been  on 
their  feet  all  day,  those  who  could  not  find  seats  sat 
down  on  the  floor  and  to  the  remonstrance  of  the 
conductor  replied  that  they  were  "too  dead  to  stand 
another  minute. " 

The  women  clerks  in  the  department  stores  are 
always  glad  when  they  find  that  Christmas  comes  on  a 
Saturday  or  Monday  so  that  they  will  have  a  chance 
to  "  stay  in  bed  for  two  days  and  rest  up." 

Some  of  the  larger  stores  allow  their  employees  who 
have  been  with  them  more  than  a  year  a  vacation 
with  pay  for  one  or  two  weeks,  but  the  majority 
allow  no  pay  whatever  for  the  time  off.  Of  the  200 
girls  seen,  94  stated  that  they  had  no  such  thing  in 
their  Uves  as  recreation,  no  dances,  no  concerts,  not 
even  a  five  cent  theatre!  58  of  them  acknowledged 
that  they  sometimes  went  to  dances,  although  many 
of  them  said  that  they  were  really  too  tired  to  enjoy 
dancing.  We  know  that  the  unfortunate  girl  who 
goes  to  the  unchaperoned  public  dance  hall  in  a  state 
of  exhaustion  is  in  a  dangerous  position,  for  she  craves 
the  stimulants  which  are  always  offered  to  her  and 
which  frequently  lead  to  further  excesses;  .48  of  the 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  65 

girls  stated  that  they  attended  5  and  10  cent  theatres, 
but  not  one  girl  was  found  who  patronized  those 
which  were  higher  priced,  and  the  majority  stated 
that  they  could  not  ajfford  to  go  at  all  unless  they 
were  invited. 

Only  two  of  the  girls  were  found  who  took  books 
from  the  public  library;  only  one  bought  magazines;  36 
bought  penny  newspapers;  43  did  some  miscellaneous 
reading,  usually  novels  borrowed  from  friends;  while 
118  claimed  that  they  never  had  time  to  read  any- 
thing, even  a  newspaper.  One  girl  said  that  her  great- 
est pleasure  was  to  buy  an  occasional  apple  to  eat  while 
reading  a  book  and  to  try  and  make  the  apple  last  as 
long  as  possible. 

A  young  girl  of  twenty-four,  who  had  been  for 
three  years  in  a  large  department  store,  earned  $6.00 
a  week.  She  "  doesn't  mind  the  work  so  much,  al- 
though selling  notions  is  very  trying  because  people  are 
so  fussy.''  She  said  her  feet  were  giving  out,  how- 
ever, and  it  was  all  she  could  do  to  get  home  at  night; 
she  found  that  the  draughts  from  the  doors,  blowing 
constantly  on  her,  gave  her  repeated  colds,  and  the 
dust  caused  by  so  many  people  passing  hurt  her 
throat;  she  was  tired  and  ''wished  she  was  dead." 

All  through  the  interviews  with  the  200  girls  the 
investigator  heard  the  wistful  expression: ''  If  we  only 
had  some  time  during  the  week  when  we  could  get  a 


66  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

little  rest;  when  we  could  get  caught  up;  when  we 
could  have  a  little  recreation."  Everywhere  the  need 
was  felt  for  a  half-day  off.  Four  of  the  better  depart- 
ment stores  close  Saturday  afternoons  regularly 
during  July  and  August,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
the  other  large  stores  are  not  willing  to  curtail  their 
profits  in  order  to  give  their  employees  a  half  holiday 
each  week.  If  the  shopping  public  would  remember 
that  the  weary  girls  need  rest,  and  on  Saturday  after- 
noons would  keep  away  from  the  big  stores,  then 
there  would  be  no  incentive  to  keep  open. 

When  we  remember  that  all  work  and  no  play  is 
injurious  to  health  as  well  as  to  morals,  and  that 
even  when  the  hard  work  is  done  it  is  not  re- 
warded by  a  living  wage,  we  can  readily  understand 
the  report  of  the  Vice  Commission  of  Chicago,  which, 
emphasizing  that  wretched  economic  conditions  make 
for  prostitution,  states  that  in  an  investigation  of  1 19 
women  who  were  found  leading  immoral  lives,  18  came 
from  department  stores  and  that  38  insisted  that  they 
had  entered  the  career  because  of  their  need  for 
money.  Some  had  entered  it  for  the  barest  necessities 
of  life,  as  in  the  following  instance: 

A  young  widow  with  a  small  child,  finding  it  impos- 
sible to  obtain  a  situation,  finally  took  a  position  in  a 
downtown  lunch  room  in  a  department  store  and  re- 
ceived $3.50  a  week;  out  of  this  she  paid  $2.00  a  week 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  67 

for  a  furnished  room,  in  which  she  lived  with  her  four- 
year-old  boy.  She  locked  him  in  during  the  day  and 
fed  him  out  of  the  remaining  $1.50  left  over  from  her 
wages.  She  herself  lunched  on  what  was  left  on  the 
plates  in  the  department  store;  her  supper  consisted  of 
rolls  which  she  managed  to  take  home  in  her  pocket. 
She  was  pretty  and  attractive  and  began  to  receive 
invitations  to  dine  out  with  men.  These  she  accepted 
because  she  was  "so  hungry"  that  she  felt  that  she 
must  have  a  good  meal  now  and  then.  One  man  with 
whom  she  dined  saw  the  temptations  before  her  and 
went  to  the  United  Charities  saying  that  the  woman 
needed  a  friend  and  that  unless  something  was  done 
for  her  she  would  be  forced  into  an  immoral  life. 

Thousands  of  shop  girls  live  on  $6.00  a  week  in 
Chicago,  but  they  do  not  have  nourishing  food,  ade- 
quate shelter,  warm  clothing  or  any  recreation.  Ac- 
cording to  a  census  taken  by  the  Woman's  Trade  / 
Union  League  of  Chicago  25  to  30  per  cent  of  the 
women  employed  in  the  department  stores  of  Chicago 
are  not  receiving  a  living  wage;  they  may  earn  a 
living  but  not  enough  to  secure  fullness  of  life  and 
when  a  girl  wearies  of  it  she  quickly  learns  of  the 
possibilities  of  a  career  which  seems  to  ojffer  luxurious 
living  with  abundance  of  recreation. 

In  response  to  a  number  of  complaints,  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  in  the  winter  of  191 2  made  an 


68  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

investigation  of  fifty  hotels  with  a  view  of  ascertain- 
ing the  temptations  which  surround  many  of  the 
young  foreign  girls  who  work  in  hotels  and  the  treat- 
ment accorded  them  by  the  managers.  The  investi- 
gator visited  13  first  class,  16  second  class,  9  third 
class  and  12  very  low  class  hotels. 

In  all  of  these  places  the  investigator  endeavored 
to  learn  the  conditions  under  which  the  girls  worked, 
where  they  slept,  what  they  ate,  the  wages  they  were 
paid,  their  hours  of  work  and  the  temptations  to  which 
they  were  exposed.  It  was  found  that  in  the  first  class 
hotels  the  chambermaids  were  Irish  and  German  and 
in  some  of  the  low  class  hotels  they  were  Americans, 
colored  or  white,  of  the  "down  and  out"  type,  but  in 
all  hotels  the  kitchen  and  laundry  work  was  done  by 
foreign  girls,  mostly  Polish.  These  girls  do  not  speak 
English  and  therefore  cannot  go  into  domestic  service, 
but  in  hotels  they  are  chosen  for  the  following  reasons: 
first,  because  they  come  from  strong  peasant  stock  and 
can  accomplish  a  large  amount  of  work;  second,  they 
are  very  thorough  in  what  they  do;  third,  they  are 
willing  to  take  very  low  wages;  fourth,  they  are  very 
submissive,  that  is  they  never  protest;  fifth,  they  are 
ignorant  of  the  laws  of  this  country  and  are  easily 
imposed  upon;  sixth,  they  never  betray  their  superiors, 
no  matter  what  they  see. 

The  wages  paid  vary  with  the  nature  of  the  work. 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  69 

Chambermaids  and  expert  ironers  are  paid  the  larg- 
est wages  while  the  scrubwomen  are  paid  the  lowest. 
The  highest  wages  paid  to  a  chambermaid,  to  a 
laundry  or  kitchen  girl  in  a  first  class  hotel  amount  to 
$18.00  a  month  and  the  lowest,  in  a  low  class  hotel, 
$14.00  a  month,  both  including  board  and  lodging. 
Without  board  and  lodging  the  highest  wages  paid  to 
a  chambermaid  is  $30.00  a  month  and  the  lowest 
$20.00  a  month. 

The  hotel  managers  trouble  themselves  very  little 
about  the  food  and  sleeping  accommodations  provided 
for  their  employees.  In  many  hotels  the  food  served 
is  not  only  poor  but  unwholesome.  In  some  hotels 
the  employees  are  obhged  to  eat  the  " come-backs'* 
from  the  guests'  meals.  In  others  the  food  is  served 
in  such  an  unappetizing  manner  that  the  disgusted 
girls  are  not  able  to  eat  it.  Many  times  they  have  no 
dining  room  and  eat  in  a  storeroom  or  cellar.  Of  the 
fifty  hotels  visited,  only  six  provided  good  food  for 
their  employees;  eight  fed  them  fairly  well,  while  in  the 
other  places  no  particular  attention  was  paid  to  the 
quality  of  the  food.    The  following  reports  are  typical : 

"The  girl  employees  ate  in  a  room  just  under  the 
kitchen,  which  looked  more  hke  a  storeroom  than  a 
dining  room.  It  was  directly  opposite  the  boilers  and 
the  heat  was  intense.  The  room  was  dark  and  uninvit- 
ing.   The  food  was  cold  and  poor.    The  tables  were 


yo  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

covered  with  old  greasy  blue  oilcloth.  The  noise  of 
the  machinery,  the  dark  entrance,  and  the  lack  of 
fresh  air  were  enough  to  take  away  appetite." 

"The  dining  room  for  the  women  employees  was  in 
a  basement  where  odors  of  by-gone  meals  mingled  with 
the  damp  smell  of  the  basement.  Against  the  wall 
was  a  *  hang- table'  and  down  the  centre  of  the  room 
was  another  long  table  covered  with  greasy  oilcloth. 
Around  the  table  were  rough  wooden  benches.  Here 
waitresses,  chambermaids,  scrubwomen,  pantry  girls, 
and  other  women  employees  were  supposed  to  eat. 
On  the  stove  was  a  pot  of  stew  continually  boiling. 
There  was  a  bowl  of  cold  boiled  potatoes  on  the  table 
and  a  long  ladle  in  the  stew  to  which  the  women 
helped  themselves.  One  cup  of  black  coffee  was  al- 
lowed to  each  one.** 

The  sleeping  accommodations  for  the  girls  were  most 
inadequate  in  the  majority  of  the  hotels  visited. 
Weak  and  exhausted  women,  after  a  hard  day's  work, 
are  crowded  into  poorly  ventilated  rooms.  Most  of 
these  hotels  violate  the  State  Board  of  Health  ordi- 
nance which  requires  400  cubic  feet  of  air  for  each  oc- 
cupant of  a  room.  Many  of  the  rooms  assigned  to 
these  hotel  employees  have  very  little  light  and  a  few 
have  no  windows.  In  many  cases  the  investigator  de- 
scribed the  girl  employees  as  looking  "as  though  they 
could  never  stand  it  all  day,"  and  added  that  "most 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  71 

of  the  girls  are  absolutely  colorless,  plainly  showing 
lack  of  fresh  air."  Only  in  three  hotels  did  the  in- 
vestigator report  that  the  sleeping  accommodations 
were  good.  In  14  they  were  only  fair  while  in  all  of 
the  others  the  girls  complained  of  the  crowded  small 
rooms,  of  the  poor  ventilation  and  of  the  lack  of  bare 
necessities.  In  16  hotels,  from  four  to  six  girls  slept 
in  a  small  room  originally  designed  for  one  bed.  In 
one  of  these  rooms  the  only  furniture  except  the  beds 
was  a  soap  box.  There  was  not  even  space  for  a  chair. 
In  most  hotels  two  girls  were  made  to  sleep  in  the  same 
bed;  although  one  girl  may  possess  superior  habits  of 
cleanliness,  no  attention  is  paid  to  the  protests  she 
may  make  nor  to  her  demands  for  privacy  and  de- 
cency. Out  of  the  fifty  hotels  investigated,  only  in 
three  did  the  women  employees  express  satisfaction 
with  the  treatment  received  at  the  hands  of  the  man- 
agers. In  all  the  other  places  where  the  investigator 
interviewed  the  girls,  their  reproaches  and  complaints 
were  most  distressing. 

In  many  instances  the  women  were  forced  to  work 
longer  than  the  ten  hour  law  permits.  This  was  es- 
pecially true  in  the  hotels  where  the  employees  were 
foreigners.  They  themselves  did  not  know  of  the 
Illinois  ten  hour  law  and  they  had  been  warned  not 
to  speak  to  anyone  about  their  work  under  penalty  of 
dismissal.     They  were  therefore  afraid  to  tell  the 


72  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

truth  to  the  investigator;  they  could  only  murmur  to 
her  that  they  worked  very  long  hours.  Many  of  the 
forewomen  admitted  that  some  of  their  employees 
often  worked  overtime  without  extra  pay.  Almost 
without  exception  the  girls  interviewed  in  the  various 
hotels  complained  of  the  excessive  hard  work  and  the 
constant  fatigue.  Many  of  them  stated  that  they 
were  so  tired  after  the  day's  work  that  they  did  not 
care  where  they  slept  if  they  could  only  secure  a  bed 
on  which  to  throw  themselves.  Others  confessed  to 
being  so  tired  that  they  did  not  take  the  trouble  to 
undress. 

The  physical  hardships  which  were  endured  by 
these  girls  are  nothing  compared  to  the  moral  dangers 
to  which  they  are  exposed.  The  girls  who  go  to  work 
in  the  hotels  are  for  the  most  part  decent  and  honest. 
They  know  that  they  will  have  to  work  hard  and  that 
their  wages  will  be  rather  low,  but  they  take  the  posi- 
tions because  they  wish  to  earn  an  honest  living.  They 
are  generally  ignorant  of  the  dangers  in  the  hotels,  and 
yet,  according  to  the  testimony  gathered  by  the  in- 
vestigator from  the  housekeepers,  very  few  of  these 
originally  honest  girls  come  safely  through  the  dangers 
to  which  they  are  constantly  exposed. 

The  method  employed  by  the  investigator  when 
visiting  a  hotel  was  to  say  to  the  housekeeper  that  she 
wanted  to  find  a  position  for  a  young  girl  in  whom  she 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  73 

was  interested  and  almost  without  exception  the 
housekeeper  would  say,  "I  would  not  advise  you  to 
put  a  young  girl  in  a  hotel.  There  are  too  many 
temptations  and  the  girls  are  not  able  to  resist  them." 
The  following  are  some  of  the  remarks  made  by  the 
housekeepers:  "Unless  a  girl  pays  no  attention  to  the 
remarks  of  the  traveUing  men,  she  will  certainly  go 
wrong."  "I  know  of  no  occupation  a  girl  can  follow 
where  she  has  the  temptations  which  surround  her  in 
a  hotel."  "The  temptations  in  a  hotel  are  more  than 
one  can  imagine.  I  do  not  like  to  see  a  young  girl  led 
into  them."  One  elderly  woman  who  had  been  a 
housekeeper  for  many  years  advised  the  investigator 
not  to  get  a  position  for  a  young  girl  in  any  place 
where  she  could  not  stay  home  at  night.  "The  ma- 
jority of  girls  who  work  in  hotels  go  wrong  sooner  or 
later,"  said  one  housekeeper.  Another  said,  "Now 
take  it  from  me  and  don't  send  any  young  girl  to  work 
in  a  hotel  in  this  neighborhood.  If  only  some  of  the 
women  who  write  for  the  magazines  knew  half  of  the 
awful  temptation  which  surround  girls  in  hotels,  they 
would  have  something  real  to  write  about." 

The  majority  of  the  managers  of  the  hotels  connive 
at  the  irregular  conduct  of  their  guests.  One  house- 
keeper said  that  she  knew  for  a  positive  fact  that  some 
of  the  chambermaids  had  been  led  into  immoraHty 
by  guests  of  the  hotel.    Another  said  a  girl  when  off 


74  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

duty  could  come  and  go  as  she  pleased;  no  one  took 
any  interest  in  her;  no  one  cared  whether  or  not  she 
was  immoral.  Another  said  no  attention  was  ever 
paid  to  any  complaint  in  regard  to  the  immorality  of 
the  employees.  One  chambermaid  said  in  answer  to 
a  question  put  by  the  investigator  that  the  reason  she 
had  not  complained  to  the  manager  of  an  outrageous 
insult  she  had  received  from  one  of  the  guests  was: 
"Because  I  have  two  little  children  to  support  and  if  we 
don't  like  the  insults  we  get,  they  tell  us  to  clear  out.'* 
In  the  majority  of  the  hotels,  there  seems  to  be  al- 
most a  conspiracy  to  tempt  the  girl  from  the  straight 
path.  In  the  first  place  almost  everything  in  her  en- 
vironment is  bad.  One  housekeeper  said  that  she 
knew  of  many  girls  who  met  bad  people  in  the  hotel; 
another  said,  "If  the  chambermaids  are  at  all  attrac- 
tive, they  receive  all  kinds  of  invitations  from  guests." 
"The  kitchen  girls  come  into  contact  with  the  waiters 
who  do  their  utmost  to  spoil  them."  "Unless  a  girl 
makes  up  her  mind  to  refuse  every  invitation,  she  will 
almost  surely  go  wrong."  In  many  of  the  hotels  there 
seems  to  be  almost  a  premium  put  upon  immoraHty 
and  there  is  no  inducement  to  remain  moral.  After  a 
hard  day's  work  when  a  girl's  muscles  are  fatigued 
and  her  nerves  tense,  she  needs  relaxation  and  rest  to 
build  her  up  for  the  next  day's  work.  There  is  no  op- 
portimity  for  wholesome  recreation  or  even  rest. 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY 


75 


Some  of  the  girls  complain  and  protest  against  this 
injustice.  Said  one  chambermaid,  "  K  a  girl  is  straight, 
there  is  nothing  for  her  but  bitter  drudgery  and  no 
pleasure  at  all."  "If  a  girl  is  good  and  refuses  to  go 
out,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  for  her  to  do."  "There 
is  nothing  for  a  girl  in  a  hotel  but  work  and  sleep." 

In  some  of  the  hotels  the  regulations  ahnost  drive 
the  girl  to  an  immoral  Hfe.  In  many  hotels  the  sep- 
arate exits  for  the  employees  lead  to  dark  alleys. 
Suspicious  characters  loiter  in  these  places  and  the 
girl  who  wishes  to  leave  the  hotel  in  the  evening  is 
afraid  to  go  out  alone.  She  is  obliged  to  seek  the  pro- 
tection of  an  escort  and  oftentimes  this  escort  is  a 
man  who  is  persecuting  her  with  his  attentions.  In 
many  hotels  the  manager  makes  no  attempt  to  prose- 
cute the  man  employee  who  is  responsible  for  the  ruin 
of  the  girl  employee.  One  housekeeper  told  of  a  girl 
who  from  the  effects  of  an  illegal  operation  died  at  the 
Cook  County  hospital  in  great  agony.  The  manager 
of  the  hotel  knew  perfectly  well  the  man  who  was 
responsible  for  this  tragedy,  but  no  action  was  taken. 
Another  Polish  girl  only  fifteen  years  old  was  sent  to 
the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  where  her  child  was 
bom.  The  bellboy,  who  was  the  father  of  her  child, 
was  allowed  to  disappear  and  no  trace  of  him  could  be 
found.  Many  of  these  girls  are  perfectly  innocent 
when  they  enter  a  hotel  and  the  shortness  of  the 


y6  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY   YOUTH 

period  between  the  beginning  of  their  service  and  the 
time  of  their  downfall  shows  the  terrible  lack  of 
moral  standards  in  these  places. 

The  greatest  grievance  of  the  majority  of  the  girls 
is  the  excessively  hard  work.  Not  only  the  scrub- 
women, the  kitchen  girls  and  the  laundry  workers 
are  worked  to  the  limit  of  their  endurance,  but  in  many 
cases  even  the  chambermaids  are  overtaxed,  as  they 
often  take  care  of  thirty  rooms.  In  one  hotel  the  fore- 
woman of  the  laundry  admitted  that  the  force  was 
not  nearly  large  enough  for  a  hotel  of  that  size,  and 
that  the  girls  were  therefore  overworked.  The  bitter 
cry  of  all  the  workers  is,  "I  am  tired  out  all  the  time." 
''My  back  gets  so  tired."  "I  am  so  tired  from  back- 
ache that  I  can't  stand  up  straight."  "My  feet  hurt 
so  I  can  scarcely  stand." 

From  the  facts  which  have  been -gathered  it  may 
reasonably  be  concluded  that  a  large  proportion  of 
girls  go  wrong  in  hotels,  first,  because  of  lack  of  whole- 
some recreation,  second,  because  of  immoral  surround- 
ings, third,  because  of  their  lonely  condition  and  the 
indifference  of  people  towards  them,  and  fourth,  be- 
cause the  hard  work  leaves  them  so  tired  that  they  are 
willing  to  take  anything  that  is  offered.  One  chamber- 
maid said  to  the  investigator,  "Oh,  if  the  social 
workers  would  only  make  some  plan  to  instruct  the 
foreign  born  girls  about  the  awful  holes  they  are  going 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY 


77 


into  when  they  take  positions  in  hotels,  there  might 
be  something  doing." 

We  can  but  regret  that  young  girls  who  come  to  the 
city  take  positions  in  hotels  where  there  is  no  one  to 
look  after  them.  They  are  ignorant  of  our  standards 
and  are  easily  persuaded  that  judgment  for  a  moral 
lapse  is  less  severe  in  America  than  it  is  in  the  old 
country.  Too  late  they  find  themselves  disgraced  and 
are  forced  to  enter  a  disreputable  Hfe  in  order  to  sup- 
port themselves. 

Many  factories  and  mercantile  establishments  em- 
ploy social  secretaries  or  welfare  secretaries,  as  they 
are  sometimes  called,  whose  duty  it  is  to  look  after 
the  physical  and  moral  welfare  of  their  employees.  It 
would  seem  even  more  necessary  to  have  welfare 
secretaries  in  the  hotels  which  are  not  only  places  of 
employment  but  where  the  girls  spend  much  of  their 
leisure  time  as  well.  Such  secretaries,  understand- 
ing the  life  of  the  girls  and  their  peculiar  temptations, 
would  be  able  to  offer  them  friendly  help  and  sym- 
pathetic counsel  for  both  leisure  and  work.  They 
would  naturally  know  the  opportunities  for  whole- 
some recreation  afforded  by  the  hotel  neighbor- 
hood and  could  also  connect  the  girls  with  educational 
institutions  when  possible.  If  the  neighborhood  were 
barren  of  clean  and  decent  recreational  facilities,  the 
social  secretary  might  provide  them  and  in  many  ways 


78  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

make  life  more  possible  for  these  overworked  girls  who 
have  not  as  yet  appealed  to  any  philanthropy. 

The  life  of  a  girl  who  takes  a  position  as  waitress  in 
a  restaurant  is  ahnost  as  hard  as  that  of  a  girl  who 
works  in  a  hotel.  An  investigator  from  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  visited  72  restaurants  in 
Chicago  and  interviewed  girls  in  each  of  these  places 
with  a  view  to  finding  out  the  number  of  hours  they 
worked,  the  wages  paid  them,  the  treatment  accorded 
them  by  employers  and  customers,  and  the  tempta- 
tions by  which  they  were  surrounded. 

The  majority  of  the  girls  who  become  waitresses 
have  received  approximately  the  same  schooling  as 
the  average  working  woman.  They  usually  live  in 
furnished  rooms,  as  they  get  their  meals  in  the  res- 
taurants where  they  are  employed.  They  go  into  the 
work  because  it  has  a  certain  amount  of  excitement 
and  brings  them  in  contact  with  a  large  number 
of  people.  The  following  are  some  of  the  replies' 
to  the  question,  "Why  did  you  become  a  waitress?" 
"Didn't  know  anything  but  waiting  on  table."  "The 
only  thing  I  could  do  and  be  sure  of  three  meals  a  day 
in  addition  to  my  wages."  "Only  thing  I  could  get." 
"The  only  nice  thing  about  work  of  this  kind  is  that  I 
get  all  kinds  of  invitations  to  go  out  and  that  helps 
some." 

There  is  much  complaint  that  the  work  is  very  hard 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  EST  INDUSTRY 


79 


and  that  the  girls  can  only  stand  it  for  a  few  years. 
The  carrying  of  heavy  trays  and  constant  standing 
and  walking  causes  ill-health  and  trouble  with  the  feet. 
Only  comparatively  few  of  the  restaurants  employing 
women  as  waitresses  serve  Hquor  to  patrons.  The 
waitresses  who  work  in  restaurants  where  Hquor  is  sold 
are  regarded  as  low  class  by  the  other  waitresses,  and 
the  excuse  given  by  the  former  is  that  they  receive 
larger  tips  where  Hquor  is  sold.  The  manager  often 
regards  a  pretty  girl  in  the  light  of  an  attraction  for 
his  restaurant.  In  one  place  the  pretty  girls  were 
put  downstairs,  where  the  men  were  served,  and  the 
plainer  girls  were  put  upstairs,  in  the  room  reserved 
for  women  customers. 

The  investigation  disclosed  that  many  of  the  girls 
come  from  homes  where  they  had  no  training;  others 
had  left  their  homes  because  they  could  not  "get  on'* 
with  their  famiHes;  others  because  they  had  lived  in 
the  country  and  wanted  to  come  to  the  city  where  they 
felt  there  would  be  more  recreation.  Some  of  these 
girls,  coming  to  know  their  own  Hmitations  and  having 
no  hope  for  a  bright  future,  realize  that  they  can  ex- 
pect but  Httle  in  the  way  of  wages  and  are  therefore 
bent  on  having  as  good  a  time  as  possible  while  their 
youth  and  attractiveness  lasts.  When  a  girl,  as  the 
investigator  discovered,  reaches  this  point  of  view, 
she  yields  readily  to  temptation. 


8o  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Owing  to  the  recent  decision  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  affirming  the  Illinois  ten-hour  law  for 
women,  the  restaurants  are  compelled  by  law  not  to 
work  their  women  employees  longer  than  ten  hours  a 
day.  The  waitresses  are  divided  into  steady  workers — 
that  is,  those  who  work  all  day  and  are  called  "three- 
meal"  girls,  and  those  who  work  for  part  of  the  day 
and  are  called  "one"  or  "two-meal"  girls.  Out  of 
the  72  restaurants  investigated  it  was  found  that  12 
disregarded  the  ten-hour  law.  One  worked  its  women 
employees  13  hours,  five  worked  them  12  hours,  two 
worked  them  11  hours,  and  four  worked  them  10 /^ 
hours.  Thirty-four  restaurants  where  steady  workers 
were  employed  obeyed  the  ten-hour  law.  Twenty- 
seven  of  these  gave  their  employees  three  hours  off 
every  afternoon,  usually  from  2  to  5  o'clock.  The 
usual  working  hours  are  from  7  a.  m.  to  2  p.  m.  and 
from  5  p.  m.  to  8  p.  m.  The  waitresses  are  therefore 
away  from  their  homes  from  about  six  in  the  morning 
until  nine  in  the  evening,  allowing  an  hour  to  go  to 
and  from  their  work.  It  may  readily  be  seen,  there- 
fore, what  a  very  long  and  fatiguing  day  they  have 
and  how  little  opportunity  is  given  them  for  recrea- 
tion or  for  the  care  of  their  clothes. 

The  greatest  number  of  hours  worked  by  these 
"full  time"  waitresses  was  found  to  be  13,  the  lowest 
6.    In  16  restaurants  they  were  obliged  to  work  on 


LEGAL  PROTECnON  IN  INDUSTRY  Sl\ 

Sundays.  In  one  place  they  worked  every  other 
Sunday  and  in  another  half  a  day  on  Sunday.  Of  the 
72  restaurants  investigated  28  employed  "part  time" 
workers,  or  "one-meal"  girls.  Three  restaurants  em- 
ployed girls  five  hours  a  day.  In  four  the  girls  worked 
four  and  a  half  hours  a  day.  Fifteen  demanded  five 
hours'  work.  Six  took  three  and  a  half  of  the  wait- 
resses' time.  The  longest  period  worked  by  these 
"part  time"  workers  was  five  hours  and  the  shortest 
three  and  a  half  hours. 

The  most  noticeable  fact  in  connection  with  the 
living  conditions  of  these  girls  is  the  large  number 
without  homes.  A  large  proportion  of  the  waitresses, 
who  do  live  at  home  are  engaged  as  "one-meal"  girls. 
In  many  cases  they  are  married  women,  and  when 
their  children  are  at  school  and  their  husbands  away  at 
work  they  use  the  time  to  earn  money  for  themselves. 
Many  of  the  managers  say  that  all  of  their  waitresses 
belong  to  this  class  of  women.  One  mother  who  was 
working  as  a  "rush  hour"  waitress  was  in  the  habit 
of  leaving  her  baby  at  home  on  a  folded  quilt  in  the 
bathtub.  In  regard  to  wages  it  was  found  that  in  72 
restaurants  the  steady  workers  were  paid  from  $5.00 
to  $9.00  a  week;  the  latter  wage  however  was  found 
only  in  two  places  while  36  restaurants  paid  their 
girls  $7.00  a  week.  The  wages  paid  to  "part  time" 
workers  were  found  to  be  from  $3.00  to  $5.50  a  week, 


82  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

although  the  larger  number  paid  $3.90  a  week.  In 
most  of  the  places  there  are  few  or  no  tips. 

Ninety  per  cent  of  the  waitresses  when  asked  about 
their  work  had  complaints  to  make,  the  chief  was 
ill-health  brought  about  from  being  on  their  feet  too 
long.  Of  bad  treatment  by  the  public  the  following 
are  specimen  complaints:  ** People  think  they  can  say 
almost  anything  to  a  waitress."  **Take  any  hfe  but 
that  of  a  waitress.  They  certainly  get  some  hard 
knocks."  "There  is  more  to  contend  with  in  the  life 
of  a  waitress  than  hard  work."  The  other  ten  per  cent 
who  did  not  complain  said  that  the  managers  treated 
them  decently  or  that  they  belonged  to  the  Trades 
Union  or  that  the  hours  of  work  were  not  longer  than 
six  to  eight.  The  ideas  of  the  better  class  of  waitresses 
may  be  learned  from  their  remarks  to  the  investiga- 
tor. One  girl  said,  "If  I  took  all  the  men  said  to  me 
the  way  they  meant  it,  I  wouldn't  be  here  long." 
Another  said  that  she  would  rather  not  take  the  tips 
than  have  to  listen  to  the  remarks  of  the  young  men 
who  gave  them. 

Waitresses  in  a  restaurant  are  apt  to  become  "bold  " 
in  a  short  time,  as  can  be  seen  by  the  remarks  of  the 
girls  who  evidently  supplement  their  wages  with  the 
help  of  what  they  call  a  "gentleman  friend,"  such 
as  the  following:  "If  I  did  not  have  a  man  I  couldn't 
get  along  on  my  wages."     "Some  of  the  girls  bat 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  83 

around  and  make  nice  money  in  other  ways.  I  don't 
blame  them,  for  they  have  to  live."  The  experiences 
told  the  investigator  are  even  more  illuminating. 
One  girl  said,  ^'A  man  who  came  to  my  restaurant 
asked  me  if  I  would  not  prefer  to  go  to  another  posi- 
tion, where  I  would  have  more  time  and  could  wear 
pretty  clothes."  Another  one  said,  "If  I  accepted  all 
the  invitations  I  get  I  wouldn't  have  time  to  sleep  or 
eat."  "Some  of  the  girls  never  come  back  for  the 
money  that  is  owing  them  after  accepting  one  of  these 
invitations."  The  investigator  saw  two  young  fellows 
who  were  served  by  a  pretty  girl  trying  to  flirt  with 
her.  Before  they  left  one  of  the  men  handed  the  girl 
a  bill  and  said  something.  She  shook  her  head  and 
her  face  turned  scarlet;  the  investigator  heard  the 
man  say,  "Oh,  well,  if  you  feel  that  way  about  it." 
Another  said  that  a  well-to-do  business  man  had  that 
day  given  her  to  understand  that  if  she  wanted  a  good 
time  he  would  see  to  it  that  she  had  it.  In  another 
place  the  investigator  saw  a  man  put  his  arm  around 
a  young  waitress  in  a  suggestive  manner.  She  looked 
appealingly  at  the  manager  but  no  protest  was 
made. 

Among  the  part  time  workers  there  are  many  who 
do  something  else  besides  serving  as  waitresses.  Some 
study  in  the  evening  either  music,  stenography  or 
telephone  operating.    A  few  fill  two  positions  as  wait- 


84  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY   YOUTH 

resses.  By  working  in  one  place  for  dinner  and 
another  for  supper,  they  are  able  to  obtain  a  few 
hours  between  these  two  meals  for  themselves.  They 
make  more  money  working  in  two  different  places. 
For  instance,  one  manager  would  pay  $3.90  a  week  for 
the  luncheon  hour  and  the  same  for  the  supper  hour, 
while  a  girl  working  in  one  place  for  both  these  meals 
would  receive  only  $6.00.  Then  again  working  at 
two  places  in  one  day  breaks  the  monotony  of  the 
long  day's  work.  Where  the  waitress  is  working  at 
something  else  in  the  evening,  such  as  stenography,  she 
is  away  from  home  the  entire  day  and  evening.  Those 
girls  who  are  not  married  and  do  not  live  at  home,  who 
work  for  only  a  part  of  the  day  have  a  hard  time.  One 
girl  when  asked  how  she  managed  to  live  said,  "I 
live  on  $3.90?  Well,  I  don't  and  I'm  not  going  to  kill 
myself  standing  on  my  feet  ten  hours  a  day  even  to 
earn  more." 

One  young  girl  had  begun  work  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen as  a  cash  girl.  She  had  had  very  little  schooling 
and  consequently  was  not  promoted  in  the  department 
store  where  she  worked  although  she  remained  with 
the  firm  for  four  years.  One  day  while  talking  to 
some  waitresses  who  were  shopping  at  the  counter 
behind  which  she  was  temporarily  serving  she  was 
led  to  believe  that  she  could  better  herself  by  securing 
a  place  as  waitress.    She  took  such  a  position,  working 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  EST  INDUSTRY  85 

between  the  hours  of  eleven  and  two  and  between  six 
and  nine.  For  this  work  she  received  six  dollars  a 
week  and,  as  this  was  the  sum  she  had  been  earning 
in  the  department  store  where  she  had  worked  from 
eight  in  the  morning  until  six  at  night,  she  felt  that 
she  was  bettering  herself,  as  she  now  had  much  more 
leisure.  Her  money,  as  before,  had  to  be  turned  into 
the  family  exchequer  and  she  soon  fell  into  the  habit 
of  staying  downtown  during  her  off  hours  instead  of 
going  home,  as  she  could  not  afford  the  carfare.  She 
strolled  about  the  streets  day  after  day,  looking  into 
the  shop  windows,  but  she  had  no  money  and  after 
the  novelty  of  having  so  much  leisure  wore  off,  she 
found  this  method  of  spending  her  time  very  stupid. 
An  unscrupulous  head  waiter  in  the  place  where  she 
was  employed  often  invited  her  to  go  to  the  theatre 
with  him  after  her  hard  day's  work  was  over,  and  he 
finally  succeeded  in  accompHshing  her  ruin.  From 
this  it  was  only  a  step  to  accepting  the  advances  from 
men  who  patronized  the  restaurant  where  she  worked. 
She  continued  to  give  her  mother  her  pay  envelope 
unopened,  but  the  extra  money  which  she  earned  in 
an  illicit  manner  she  kept  for  herself.  It  was  not  long 
before  her  mother's  suspicions  were  aroused,  and  after 
watching  the  girl  she  soon  found  out  her  mode  of  life. 
Reproaches  followed  and  the  girl,  feeHng  her  inde- 
pendence and  resenting  her  mother's  interference, 


I 


86  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

left  her  home  and  soon  drifted  into  the  ranks  of  the 
professional  prostitute. 

From  the  investigation  of  these  waitresses  it  would 
appear  that  the  girls  are  off  in  the  afternoon  between 
the  hours  of  2  and  5  o'clock.  If  they  remain  in  the 
restaurant  where  they  work  they  cannot  rest,  as  they 
are  expected  to  do  some  kind  of  work ;  it  is  not  always 
waiting,  but  often  cleaning.  Many  times  they  are  so 
tired  that  they  put  pads  on  the  tables  and  lie  on  them. 
It  is  too  far  for  them  to  go  to  their  homes,  as  they 
cannot  afford  the  carfare,  and  an  hour  or  more  is  con- 
sumed in  going  and  coming.  At  the  best  they  go 
shopping,  or  look  into  the  shop  windows  or  go  into 
nickel  shows  if  they  can  find  some  one  to  invite  them. 
Many  young  men  loiter  outside  the  restaurants  to 
pick  up  an  acquaintance  with  the  waitresses  during 
their  leisure  time.  In  order  to  provide  a  place  where 
these  girls  can  rest  for  the  three  hours  they  are  "off'* 
duty,  the  Junior  League  of  Chicago  established  a 
room,  comfortably  furnished,  with  a  matron  in  charge, 
where  the  girls  rest,  read  or  sew  as  they  may  desire; 
classes  in  domestic  science,  sewing  or  other  subjects 
are  formed  for  the  girls  who  care  for  them.  The  Wait- 
resses' Union,  which  maintains  a  small  room  in  the 
same  building,  has  readily  cooperated  in  the  plan. 
The  imion  would  regulate  for  its  members,  not  only 
the  matter  of  hours  and  wages,  but  it  would  protect 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  87 

them  from  insults.  If  publicity  could  be  given  to  the 
improper  attentions  which  the  girls  receive,  evil  men 
would  doubtless  be  more  careful  in  their  treatment  of 
waitresses  and  public  opinion  would  in  time  become 
a  natural  safeguard  and  protection. 

The  giving  of  tips  should  be  abolished  because  of 
their  pernicious  effect.  A  young  girl  who  under  any 
other  circumstances  would  not  dream  of  accepting 
money  from  a  man,  will  accept  it  in  the  guise  of  a  tip. 
In  the  hands  of  a  vicious  man  this  tip  establishes 
between  him  and  the  girl  a  relation  of  subserviency 
and  patronage  which  may  easily  be  made  the  begin- 
ning of  improper  attentions.  The  most  conscientious 
girl  dependent  upon  tips  to  eke  out  her  slender  wage, 
finds  it  difficult  to  determine  just  where  the  line  of 
propriety  is  crossed.  Thus,  in  addition  to  the  other 
dangers  surrounding  the  girls  employed  in  hotels  and 
restaurants,  they  encounter  that  lack  of  respect 
which  curiously  attaches  itself  to  one  who  accepts  a 
gratuity. 

The  entire  investigation  revealed  once  more  the 
hideous  risks  of  the  excessively  fatigued  and  over- 
worked girl  who  is  able  to  obtain  the  rest  and  com- 
fort she  craves  only  through  illicit  channels.  All 
such  testimony  reveals  the  dangers  in  which  many 
young  girls  are  placed.  The  same  kind-hearted  people 
who,  in  great  concern,  would  quickly  gather  around 


88  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

the  victim  of  a  street  accident,  carelessly  eat  food 
placed  before  them  by  a  frail  girl  almost  fainting  with 
fatigue  or  heedlessly  walk  through  a  hotel  corridor 
lately  scrubbed  by  a  Polish  woman  who  has  spent 
ten  hours  upon  her  hands  and  knees.  They  do  not  in 
the  least  realize  that  the  loss  of  vitaUty  and  life  itself 
in  the  latter  cases,  is  quite  as  harrowing  as  in  the 
former.  *  Only  when  the  public  learns  to  know  the 
effects  of  protracted  labor  upon  women  engaged  in 
hotels  and  restaurants,  will  adequate  measures  be 
taken  for  their  rehef . 
The  ten-hour  law  for  the  labor  of  women  recently 
^passed  by  the  Illinois  legislature  has  been  of  great 
benefit  to  these  girls.  A  test  case  was  taken  up  to  the 
Supreme  Court  by  hotel  men  on  the  ground  that  the 
labor  of  hotel  and  restaurant  employees  was  domestic 
labor,  but  fortunately  the  court  sustained  the  law 
and  it  continues  to  protect  these  hard  driven 
women. 

lUinois  has  not  been  so  fortunate  in  regard  to  its 
minimum  wage  legislation  although  a  legislative  com- 
mittee two  years  ago  sat  in  Chicago  for  many  weeks 
to  inquire  into  the  wages  paid  to  the  working  women  of 
our  city  and  endeavored  to  find  out  how  far  low  wages 
were  responsible  for  the  white  slave  traffic.  It  hardly 
seemed  necessary  to  investigate  further  the  wages  paid 
to  Chicago  working  women  since  the  report  of  the 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY       89 

commissioner  of  labor  on  "Conditions  of  Women  and 
Child  Wage  Earners  in  the  United  States"  shows  that 
the  commissioner  was  successful  in  obtaining  from  the 
pay  rolls  of  eight  of  the  leading  department  stores  of 
Chicago  the  yearly  earnings  of  the  13,160  women  and 
girls  they  employ;  that  out  of  that  number  over  one- 
half,  or  7,033,  earned  less  than  eight  dollars  a  week. 
This  report  also  states  that  a  very  large  number  of 
the  women  employed  in  the  various  shops  and  indus- 
tries of  Chicago  earn  less  than  five  dollars  a  week; 
that  13%  of  the  women  working  in  the  retail  stores, 
29%  of  those  in  the  clothing  trades,  27%  of  those  in 
the  candy  trades,  17%  of  those  working  in  the  box 
factories,  5%  of  those  working  in  corset  factories, 
and  29%  of  those  working  in  the  stockyards  earn  less 
than  five  dollars  a  week. 

It  is  always  argued  by  employers  that  they  employ 
only  girls  who  live  at  home,  but  my  experience  has 
been  that  since  girls  know  this  requirement  they 
always  say  that  they  are  living  at  home  or  with  rela- 
tives in  order  to  secure  the  positions.  The  argument 
at  the  best  is  worthless,  for  this  same  report  shows 
that  81%  of  the  total  number  of  factory  women  in 
Chicago  and  78%  of  those  working  in  department 
stores  who  five  at  home  contribute  their  entire  earn- 
ings to  the  family  exchequer,  many  of  them,  espe- 
ciaUy  the  young  girls,  bringing  home  their  pay  en- 


90  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

velopes  unopened  and  turning  them  over  to  their 
parents. 

I  cannot  but  deplore  the  general  inference  that  is 
being  made  at  the  present  time  that  large  numbers  of 
girls  are  being  driven  into  a  disreputable  Ufe  because 
they  receive  an  insufficient  wage.  While  it  is  true 
that  girls  who  are  inadequately  fed,  badly  housed  and 
poorly  clothed  sometimes  do  yield  to  temptation  in 
order  that  they  may  live  more  comfortably,  yet  on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  an  enormous  number  and 
of  course  by  far  the  larger  part  of  them  who  not 
only  resist  temptation  but,  true  to  their  tradi- 
tions and  innate  convictions,  turn  indignantly 
from  it. 

It  is  said  that  in  Chicago  it  costs  a  girl  eight  dollars 
a  week  to  live.  Possibly  she  may  be  able  to  secure 
unattractive  lodgings,  unpalatable  food  and  ugly 
clothes  for  this  sum,  but  she  has  nothing  left  with 
which  to  get  some  enjoyment  out  of  life.  Working 
in  a  department  store  all  day  is  intensely  fatiguing. 
Work  in  a  modern  factory  is  nerve  racking.  Pasting 
labels,  dipping  candy,  putting  eyelets  into  shoes, 
and  stitching  endless  seams  is  deadly  monotonous 
and  starves  the  imagination.  The  ** speeding  up"  so 
constantly  demanded  in  a  factory  robs  the  girl  of  her 
youth,  steals  her  vitality  and  often  makes  her  a 
nervous  wreck  imless  she  has  a  certain  amount  of 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY 


91 


recreation.  How  is  she  going  to  get  it  on  eight  dollars 
a  week? 

When  we  consider  that  there  are  five  million  work- 
ing women  in  the  United  States,  one-half  of  them  under 
twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  that  one-fifth  of  them 
earn  less  than  $200  a  year,  or  four  dollars  a  week,  and 
'that  three-fifths  of  them  earn  less  than  $325  a  year  or 
about  six  dollars  a  week,  we  realize  how  important  it 
is  that  some  measures  be  taken  which  will  give  the 
working  girl  an  income  sufficient  to  enable  her  to 
live  respectably  and  have  some  margin  for  emergencies 
and  recreation. 

Only  a  short  time  ago  a  working  girl  in  Chicago 
committed  suicide.  She  left  behind  a  little  note 
saying  that  while  she  received  a  salary  of  $8.00  a 
week — what  we  in  that  city  consider  a  living  wage — 
she  could  not  make  both  ends  meet  and  so,  tired  and 
discouraged,  she  left  it  all  behind  her.  Among  her 
effects  a  memorandum  was  found:  room,  $2.50; 
board,  $3.00;  carfare,  $0.60;  washing,  $1.00.  This  left 
her  $0.90  for  clothes,  recreation,  doctor,  dentist,  and 
incidentals. 

A  third  of  the  5,000,000  working  women  in  the 
United  States  five  away  from  their  homes.  Ahnost  all 
of  these  women  are  making  a  fight  for  life  and  the 
wonder  of  it  is,  not  that  so  many  of  them  succumb 
to  temptation,  but  that  so  many  resist  and  struggle 


92  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

through  the  dreary  grind.  Through  long  dull  days  of 
sickening  fatigue,  unbroken  by  any  pleasure,  they  are 
constantly  harassed  by  the  effort  to  live  on  an  inade- 
quate wage. 

As  difficult  as  the  situation  is  for  the  working  girl, 
perhaps  the  consequences  are  even  more  grave  when 
the  woman  working  for  such  small  pay  is  the  mother 
of  a  family.  Overwork  and  underpay  of  parents  is  re- 
sponsible for  much  neglect  of  children.  Scott  Nearing 
says  that  three-fourths  of  the  men  in  American  indus- 
try cannot  provide  decently  for  more  than  three 
children;  one-half  cannot  provide  for  more  than  two 
children  and  one-fourth  cannot  make  adequate  pro- 
vision for  one  child. 

When  the  father  is  working  for  an  inadequate  wage 
and  the  mother  is  supplementing  the  family  income 
by  going  out  to  work,  the  home  is  inevitably  unsan- 
itary and  untidy  and  the  children  are  underfed. 
An  estimate  based  upon  the  number  of  American 
school  children  who  never  get  beyond  the  grammar 
grades  claims  that  one-tenth  of  the  school  children  in 
this  country  are  seriously  underfed;  and  that  four-, 
fifths  of  the  whole  are  put  to  work  too  early. 

The  courts  in  the  United  States  are  rapidly  sus- 
taining legislation  for  the  protection  of  women. 
Within  thirty  days  during  February  and  March  of 
this  current  year,  the  Supreme  Court  of  Oregon  by  a 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  IN  INDUSTRY  93 

unanimous  decision  sustained  the  minimum  wage  law; 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  an  Ohio 
case  sustained  the  54-hour  week,  the  lo-hour  day  and 
the  6-day  week,  and  by  the  vote  of  Congress  8  hours 
for  women  workers  was  established  in  the  District 
of  Columbia. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  first  duty  of  society  were  to 
protect  the  ever  increasing  throng  of  working  women 
who  are  entering  the  industrial  world  by  demanding 
for  them  a  shorter  working  day  and  an  adequate 
wage  and  by  giving  them  ample  opportunities  for 
recreation.  Only  when  we  guard  working  girls  from 
industrial  overstrain  and  from  dullness  during  their 
leisure  hours,  will  they  be  able  to  resist  temptation 
and  to  properly  fulfil  the  functions  which  belong  to 
them.  When  minimum  wage  boards  are  estabhshed 
in  every  state  it  may  be  made  clear  to  the  community 
that  the  economic  status  may  be  responsible  for  the 
moral  and  physical  dangers  to  which  overworked, 
underfed  and  underpaid  girls  are  subjected. 


J 


CHAPTER  IV 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS 


Many  interesting  cases  of  adventurous  boys  have 
been  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Association,  but 
perhaps  none  more  entertaining  than  that  of  a  lad  of* 
fifteen  who  had  long  been  very  anxious  to  go  west  and 
be  a  cowboy.  This  his  mother  would  not  allow  him  to 
do  because  she  needed  his  earnings  for  her  support. 
He  spent  his  spare  time  hanging  around  a  riding  acad- 
emy holding  horses  and  occasionally  getting  a  short 
ride  through  the  kindness  of  an  obliging  employee. 
Late  one  Saturday  afternoon  on  his  way  from  work  he 
saw  a  horse  and  buggy  standing  by  the  sidewalk.  He 
jumped  hito  the  buggy,  hastily  drove  to  another  part 
of  the  city,  sold  the  vehicle  and  with  the  proceeds 
bought  a  saddle  and  bridle,  a  Mexican  sombrero,  a 
dirk  and  a  lasso.  Donning  the  garments  and  mounted 
upon  the  horse,  he  set  out  for  the  wild  west  but  could 
not  resist  the  desire  to  ride  to  the  house  of  one  of  his 
friends  in  order  to  say  good-bye  and  perhaps  also  to 
show  his  fine  feathers.  He  was  seen  and  arrested  by 
an  unsympathetic  policeman  and  brought  into  the 
Juvenile  Court  where  the  incident  was  treated  with 

94 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  95 

gravity  of  course  but  in  marked  contrast  to  the  punish- 
ment he  would  have  received  a  quarter  of  a  century 
earlier.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  boy  who  thus  took  a 
horse  and  buggy  was  hanged;  twenty  years  ago  he  was 
charged,  treated  and  convicted  as  a  horse  thief,  sent 
to  jail  and  confined  in  the  same  cell  with  confirmed 
criminals.  To-day  under  the  Juvenile  Court  system 
he  is  taken  to  a  detention  home,  put  under  the  care  of 
^  trained  teacher,  examined  by  a  medical  man  for 
physical  defects  and  studied  by  a  psychologist.  His 
case  is  then  heard  by  a  sympathetic  judge  and  if  the 
boy  is  a  first  offender,  he  is  sent  home  under  the  care 
of  a  probation  officer. 

The  Juvenile  Court  rests  upon  two  great  principles: 
first,  the  valuation  of  the  child,  resulting  in  the  belief  *^ 
that  if  he  is  surrounded  by  a  safe  environment  and 
protected  from  evil  associations,  he  will  become  a  con- 
tributor to  the  wealth,  prosperity  and  goo(J|govem- 
ment  of  the  state,  but  that  if  he  is  neglected,  he  will 
become  a  burden  on  the  community  and  a  danger 
to  society.  Second,  the  abandonment  of  retributive 
punishment,  for  the  Juvenile  Court  does  not  regard  ^ 
a  child  under  seventeen  as  a  criminal,  and  its  aim  is 
not  to  punish  but  to  bring  about  such  changes  in  the 
child's  life,  either  through  the  home  or  through  care 
in  an  institution,  as  will  fit  him  for  respectable  citizen- 
ship. 


96  SAFEGUARDS  FOR   CITY  YOUTH 

Approximately  55,000  children  have  passed  through 
the  Juvenile  Court  of  Chicago  since  its  establishment 
fifteen  years  ago.  The  majority  of  these  children 
were  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  years. 
There  are  84,000  children  of  this  age  in  the  entire  city 
of  Chicago.  We  all  know  that  increase  in  juvenile 
delinquency  cannot  be  prevented  until  we  have  the 
cooperation  of  citizens  in  removing  the  untoward  con- 
ditions which  have  brought  approximately  55,000  of 
our  children  into  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Chicago  and 
until  we  can  devise  constructive  measures  which  will 
surround  our  84,000  minors  between  the  ages  of  14  and 
16  years  with  a  decent  environment.  Many  develop- 
ments of  the  Juvenile  Court  itself  during  this  period 
have  tended  to  reduce  the  number  of  children  brought 
into  court.  The  probation  department  which  must 
always  represent  the  most  important  function  of  the 
Juvenile  Court,  is  divided  into  three  sections,  one  for 
dependent  children,  one  for  delinquent  boys,  and  one 
for  delinquent  girls.  The  dependent  children  are  ex- 
amined by  a  medical  man,  which  was  found  necessary 
as  it  has  been  estimated  that  81%  of  the  children 
brought  into  the  Chicago  Court  are  handicapped  by 
some  physical  disability  and  throughout  the  United 
States  the  average  percentage  of  children,  not  normal, 
who  are  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court  is  75%. 
There  were  other  children,  however,  constantly  brought 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS     97 

to  the  attention  of  the  Association  who,  although  they 
had  passed  the  tests  of  a  regular  physician,  were  so  ob- 
viously abnormal,  as  to  need  the  care  of  an  aUenist. 
I  recall  a  young  girl  who  came  one  day  to  the  Asso- 
ciation to  ask  for  protection.  She  seemed  very  worried 
and  frightened  and  said  that  she  had  been  an  appren- 
tice in  a  dressmaker's  estabUshment  in  New  York 
where  she  had  lived  with  a  girl  friend  in  a  boarding 
house.  She  told  of  meeting  a  man  one  day  on  the 
street  who  had  apparently  been  struck  by  her  appear- 
ance— she  was  very  pretty — and  had  followed  her 
to  her  lodging,  pressing  upon  her  his  attentions,  tell- 
ing he  would  give  her  all  kinds  of  luxuries  if  she  would 
give  up  her  work  to  go  with  him  and  "live  like  a  lady." 
He  thus  pursued  her  day  after  day  and  finally,  to 
avoid  him,  she  and  her  friend  had  come  to  Chicago 
where  they  had  obtained  a  situation  in  a  department 
store.  She  was  horrified  the  day  before  she  came  to 
the  Association  to  meet  the  same  man  upon  the  street. 
He  told  her  that  he  had  followed  her  from  New  York 
and  he  again  renewed  his  importunities.  Very  much 
frightened,  she  had  come  to  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  for  protection.  Her  description  of  the 
man  and  the  place  of  meeting  was  most  detailed,  but 
all  the  efforts  of  the  officers  of  the  Association,  aided 
by  a  city  detective,  failed  to  find  him.  They  did  dis- 
cover, however,  that  the  girl  was  Hving  with  her 


98  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

mother  in  South  Chicago,  that  she  had  never  been  in 
New  York,  nor  away  from  home  for  a  single  night. 
The  situation  was  so  astonishing  that  the  Association 
sent  the  girl  to  a  well-known  alienist  who  pronounced 
her  a  victim  of  delusions.  This  case  similar  to  dozens 
of  others,  in  which  the  imsupported  testimony  of 
the  child  had  led  the  Association  to  the  inevitable 
conclusion  that  the  story  was  either  one  of  pure  ro- 
mance or  of  abnormal  delusion  convinced  us  that 
many  of  the  children  should  have  a  careful  psycho- 
pathic examination.  Through  the  initiative  and 
generosity  of  one  of  the  members  of  the  board  of  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  a  psychopathic  clinic 
was  established  in  connection  with  the  Juvenile  Court, 
in  charge  of  a  well-known  physician  who  had  long  spe- 
cialized as  an  alienist.  At  the  end  of  five  years,  this 
psychopathic  laboratory  was  taken  over  by  the  county 
and  it  has  become  an  established  procedure  of  the 
Court  that  all  ''repeaters"  should  be  subjected  to  a 
psychopathic  examination.  The  physician  looks  up 
the  family  history  and  makes  every  effort  to  ascertain 
any  nervous  disabilities  which  may  have  led  to  the 
child's  delinquency.  In  the  first  two  thousand  chil- 
dren examined  he  found  that  7.7%  were  suffering  from 
epilepsy,  a  fact  which  had  not  developed  at  the  medi- 
cal examination. 
The  Fund  to  Parents  Act  was  passed  by  the  Hh- 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS     99 

nois  legislature  in  191 1  because  the  judge  felt  very 
strongly  that  poverty  alone  should  never  be  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  separating  parent  and  child,  but  that 
he  should  have  the  discretion  of  paying  to  the  mother 
of  a  child  the  ten  dollars  which  the  county  would 
otherwise  pay  into  an  industrial  school,  if  the  Court 
decided  that  the  mother  could  not  adequately  care 
for  the  child.  The  Widows'  Pension  Act,  as  it  is 
familiarly  called,  gives  to  the  judge  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  the  power  to  provide  a  maintenance,  not  to  ex- 
ceed ten  dollars  a  month,  for  every  child  whose  parent 
or  parents  are  unable  to  properly  care  for  it;  890 
families  have  applied  for  pensions  to  this  department, 
during  the  past  year.  The  appHcations  have  all  been 
investigated  and  pensions  have  been  granted  to  185 
famihes.  In  these  families  there  are  629  children. 
The  average  pension  granted  to  a  family  is  $27.61  per 
month;  the  average  amount  per  child  is  $8.12.  The 
number  of  families  increases  every  year,  of  course,  as 
new  ones  are  added,  and  the  total  number  of  families 
now  receiving  pensions  from  this  department  is  358 
and  the  number  of  children  receiving  this  fund  is  1,108. 
There  is  a  dietitian  connected  with  this  pension  de- 
partment, a  woman  of  large  experience  who  visits  the 
homes  of  the  women  receiving  pensions,  showing  them 
how  to  expend  their  money  advantageously  and  how 
to  buy  the  most  nourishing  foods  at  the  least  cost. 


lOO  SAFEGUARDS   FOR   CITY  YOUTH 

Some  amendments  to  the  Juvenile  Court  Law  were 
recently  passed  which  provide  that  the  families  of 
ahens  shall  not  receive  relief  and  in  consequence  219 
families  have  been  dropped  from  the  county  pension 
list,  this  number  including  703  children.  The  pen- 
sions recalled  amounted  to  $5,730.50  per  month. 
The  total  amount  spent  in  pensions  this  past  year  was 
$140,000  and  the  feeling  is  strong  in  this  department 
that  every  family  should  be  given  adequate  relief. 
A  cheerful  fact  connected  with  this  matter  is  that  out 
of  all  the  children  in  families  receiving  pensions  during 
the  past  year,  only  two  children  have  been  brought 
back  into  court,  one  as  a  truant  and  one  as  a  delin- 
quent; surely  a  strong  argument  that  the  better  care 
of  children  reduces  delinquency. 

Closely  allied  to  the  mothers'  pensions  is  legisla- 
tion designed  to  secure  the  earnings  of  prisoners  for 
their  families.  Many  children  from  such  families  are 
brought  into  court  and,  at  the  present  moment,  the 
economic  burden  of  imprisonment  falls  not  upon  the 
prisoner,  who  is  sheltered,  clothed  and  fed  by  the 
state,  but  upon  the  prisoner's  family,  who  are  de- 
prived of  their  bread-winner.  It  is  said  that  in  the 
United  States  approximately  150,000  men  are  put  be- 
hind prison  bars  each  year.  Assuming  that  one-third 
of  these  are  married  men,  each  with  a  wife  and  three 
children,   it  means   that  annually   200,000   women 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS      "  lOl' 

and  children  become  dependent  upon  their  own 
exertions,  or  charity,  through  no  fault  of  their  own. 
A  man  confined  in  prison  for  a  year  or  more  is  apt 
to  find  his  family  broken  up  in  his  absence,  as  his 
wife  is  often  unable  to  keep  her  children  and  they  are 
sent  to  charitable  institutions.  Thus  the  home,  the 
convict's  sheet  anchor,  is  destroyed. 

As  I  write  I  have  before  me  a  summary  of  laws  bear- 
ing on  assistance  to  prisoners'  families,  and  I  cannot 
see  that  any  state,  save  California,  makes  adequate 
provision  for  these  unfortunate  people.  In  the  other 
states  the  law  provides  that  from  five  to  ten  per  cent 
of  the  day's  earnings,  or  that  the  wages  for  overtime 
be  turned  over  to  the  prisoner's  family,  but  as  the 
convict's  wage  is  so  small,  this  amounts  to  a  pittance 
only.  In  the  District  of  Columbia  fifty  cents  a  day 
is  allowed  to  the  prisoner's  family,  but  this  is  natu- 
rally not  an  adequate  provision.  In  the  most  liberal 
prisons,  the  prisoner's  earnings  for  overtime  do  not 
average  more  than  three  dollars  a  month  and  in  most 
prisons  he  earns  nothing.  In  addition  to  the  abject 
poverty  in  which  the  disgraced  prisoner  frequently 
finds  his  family,  he  often  brings  disease  to  them.  Forty 
to  skty  per  cent  of  the  deaths  in  prisons  are  due 
to  tuberculosis,  while  the  average  percentage  out- 
side is  only  fourteen.  The  average  sentence  of  pris- 
oners is  said  to  be  less  than  five  years,  so  that  in 


I02  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY   YOUTH 

the  course  of  this  period  most  of  the  prisoners  find  their 
way  back  to  the  outside  world  where  they  too  often 
carry  the  disease  which  they  have  contracted  in  prison. 
The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  dealt  with  so 
many  pitiful  cases  of  children  whose  fathers  were  in 
the  city  prison  that  an  arrangement  was  finally  made 
with  the  very  enUghtened  superintendent  of  that  in- 
stitution that  when  the  Association  reported  to  him 
that  a  prisoner's  children  were  suffering,  the  prisoner 
might  be  paroled  to  the  Association,  and  allowed  his 
freedom,  so  long  as  his  wages  were  regularly  turned  in 
to  his  family.  This  arrangement  in  many  of  the  cases 
was  so  satisfactory  that  the  men  were  not  returned 
to  the  city  prison  while  others  of  the  discharged  men 
proved  very  difficult.  The  situation  was  the  more  ex- 
asperating in  that  the  profits  from  the  labor  of  the 
prisoners  employed  in  the  House  of  Correction  went 
into  the  pockets  of  the  prison  contractors.  The 
Chicago  Efficiency  Committee  reported  that  in  1 910 
the  Chicago  Leather  Company  employed  at  the 
bridewell,  the  city  prison  of  Chicago,  from  60  to  100 
men,  for  which  they  paid  from  25  to  35  cents  a  day 
each.  No  charge  was  made  for  factory  space  nor  for 
light  and  power.  In  addition  the  unpaid  prisoners 
loaded  and  unloaded  the  cars  and  as  for  this  service 
no  charge  was  made,  the  company  thus  secured  a 
large  amount  of  labor  free.     Other  companies  had 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  103 

sibilar  concessions.  If  only  those  men  who  made 
bricks,  for  example,  had  been  employed  at  50  cents 
a  day  by  the  city,  in  one  year  $16,577  would  have  been 
available  for  their  famihes.  The  Association  there- 
fore rejoiced  when  the  Chicago  City  Council  passed 
an  ordinance  rectifying  this  injustice,  for  under  the 
present  arrangement,  at  least  a  minimum  of  support 
is  given  to  prisoners^  families. 

Another  interesting  development  of  the  Juvenile 
Court  has  been  the  estabhshment  of  separate  cham- 
bers for  the  hearing  of  the  girls'  cases  by  a  woman  who 
acts  as  an  assistant  to  the  judge.  Out  of  the  girls* 
cases  heard  by  Miss  Mary  Bartelme,  in  1913,  290 
girls  have  been  placed  on  probation,  only  16  of  whom 
have  been  brought  back  into  court,  a  fact  which  ar- 
gues well  for  the  probation  system. 

Another  new  department  of  the  Juvenile  Court 
which  has  been  lately  developed  is  the  complaint  de- 
partment. There  were  received  here  in  1913,  3,605 
complaints.  Of  this  number  2,755  were  handled  out 
of  court  and  only  850  were  brought  into  court.  Pre- 
viously no  record  had  been  kept  of  the  cases  that  were 
settled  out  of  court  but  now  a  record  is  made  of  every 
such  case,  together  with  a  list  of  the  agencies  which 
have  assisted  in  its  adjustment.  These  records  in 
time  should  afford  valuable  suggestions  as  to  the  pre- 
vention of  juvenile  dehnquency. 


I04  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

There  is  of  course  but  a  narrow  line  between  the 
boy  who  has  reached  the  maxunum  age  for  treatment 
in  the  Juvenile  Court  and  the  boy  who,  because  he 
has  already  passed  his  seventeenth  birthday  is  re- 
garded  as  a  criminal.  Because  so  many  cases  of  the 
latter  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Association, 
an  investigation  was  made  of  the  police  stations  in  con- 
nection with  the  young  boys  and  girls  who  were  con- 
fined there.  Some  of  the  police  stations  in  Chicago 
were  found  to  be  indescribably  bad,  the  cells  were  in 
the  basements,  which  are  dingy,  damp  and  unsanitary, 
and  generally  unfit  for  human  habitation.  Many  of 
the  cells  are  not  only  filthy  but  breeding  places  for 
contagious  diseases.  In  one  station  there  are  eight  cells 
in  a  row,  five  for  men  and  three  for  women:  there  is  a 
trough  running  through  these  cells  which,  according 
to  the  attendant,  "works  very  badly."  This  lack  of 
proper  provision  for  prisoners  is  not  only  a  public  nui- 
sance, according  to  the  Chicago  code,  and  a  crime 
against  those  incarcerated  in  the  cells,  but  a  menace  to 
the  community  at  large. 

According  to  the  Police  Department  report  for  the 
year  191 1,  81,648  persons  were  locked  up  in  the  police 
stations  that  year.  The  larger  part  of  this  number 
were  kept  in  the  cells  over  Saturday  and  Sunday 
nights,  these  nights  being  in  the  words  of  the  police 
"the  busiest  evenings  of  the  week."    Of  this  number 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  10$ 

9,840  were  women  and  1,380  young  girls.  Under  the 
above  conditions  one  can  realize  the  utter  degrada- 
tion of  a  '4ock-up"  overnight  in  one  of  these  stations. 
To  appreciate  fully  the  danger  thqse  cells  are  to  the 
community,  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  large 
number  of  innocent  people  are  confined  there.  Out 
of  the  81,648  people  arrested  in  191 1,  49,934  were 
discharged  by  the  Municipal  Court  when  their  cases 
came  up  for  trial  because  they  were  presumably  in- 
nocent. Such  inefficiency  would  not  be  tolerated  in 
other  enterprises,  public  or  private. 

Out  of  one  hundred  cases  investigated  by  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association,  ten  boys  complained 
of  poHce  abuse;  six  said  that  their  arrest  had  not  been 
reported  to  their  parents,  one  mother  only  learning 
of  the  arrest  of  her  child  through  the  newspapers. 
There  were  many  serious  charges  against  the  police 
officers:  one  boy  was  beaten  with  a  billy  and  sand 
bag,  knocked  down  three  times  and  kicked — all  in  an 
endeavor  to  make  him  confess  to  something  he  had 
not  done.  Another  was  taken  by  the  throat,  choked, 
hit  on  the  mouth  and  one  of  his  teeth  was  knocked  out. 
Another  was  taken  into  a  small  room  and  beaten  with 
a  billy,  in  an  effort  to  secure  information  against 
other  boys;  another  had  cold  water  poured  over  him 
with  the  threat  that  if  he  did  not  confess  he  would  be 
treated  the  same  way  with  hot  water.    Such  methods 


Io6  SAFEGUARDS   FOR   CITY   YOUTH 

are  sure  to  arouse  hatred  and  opposition  and  will 
certainly  never  increase  the  boys'  respect  for  the 
law. 

Another  injustice  in  the  police  stations  is  the  "mug- 
ging" system.  When  a  boy  or  man  is  arrested  and 
held  to  the  Grand  Jury  by  the  Municipal  Court,  his 
photograph  and  measurements  are  taken,  an  impres- 
sion of  his  thumb  made  and  these  are  placed  in  the 
*' Rogues'  Gallery."  The  captain  of  the  Identification 
Bureau  stated  that  in  191 1,  5,398  men  and  boys  were 
brought  to  this  Bureau  for  photographs  and  descrip- 
tion. Out  of  this  number  2,383  were  found  guilty  and 
sentenced  to  some  penal  mstitution;  the  other  2,955 
were  discharged,  presumably  innocent,  but  their  pic- 
tures and  descriptions  remained  in  the  "Rogues'  Gal- 
lery." It  also  appeared  that  the  poorer  prisoners  who 
were  unable  to  secure  bail  were  "mugged"  while  wait- 
ing trial  in  the  Criminal  Court,  and  those  able  to  find 
some  one  to  go  on  their  bond  were  not  subjected  to  this 
disgrace.  Are  we  so  proud  of  our  criminal  records  that 
we  must  add  to  their  number  by  putting  a  stigma  on 
innocent  people  from  which  they  can  never  escape? 
The  same  unjust  conditions  in  regard  to  arrest  and 
detention  apply  equally  to  boys  who  are  confined  in 
the  county  jail  and  even  in  many  so-called  reform 
schools  and  in  penitentiaries.  Through  the  efforts  of 
the  Association   the   officials   of   the   Identification 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  107 

Bureau  now  return  to  a  boy  his  photograph  and  meas- 
urements if  he  has  been  found  "not  guilty." 

Less  than  two  years  ago  Chicago  was  horrified  by 
a  very  brutal  murder  committed  by  six  young  men 
and  boys,  apparently  without  any  object,  even  that 
of  petty  theft,  as  the  truck  gardener  whom  they  killed 
early  one  morning  as  he  was  driving  into  the  city,  had 
in  his  possession  but  a  few  dollars  which  he  vainly 
offered  in  exchange  for  his  life. 

Four  of  the  young  men  suffered  the  extreme  penalty 
of  the  law,  capital  punishment.  Two  of  them,  broth- 
ers, were  24  and  21  years  old  and  another  was  less 
than  19.  Two  other  boys,  both  under  17  years  of  age, 
who  were  associated  with  the  crime  were  sent  to  the 
State  Penitentiary.  The  boys  confessed  to  the  revolt- 
ing crime  which  was  apparently  without  mitigating 
circumstances  and  throughout  the  trial  bore  them- 
selves with  unbroken  bravado;  until  confronted  by 
the  death  sentence,  they  exhibited  no  remorse. 

Although  a  protest  was  made  by  many  citizens 
against  the  brutalizing  effect  upon  the  community  of 
such  a  wholesale  execution  and  although  these  citi- 
zens added  to  the  usual  arguments  against  capital 
punishment  the  plea  that  many  states  had  abolished 
it  for  minors  even  when  retaining  it  for  adults,  it  was 
evident  that  pubHc  sentiment  as  a  whole  upheld  the 
drastic  punishment. 


Io8  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

"^  At  that  time,  however,  the  whole  subject  of  the 
"juvenile  offender"  came  up  for  discussion  in  Chicago 
and  many  conditions  were  discovered  which  stirred 
a  careless  city  to  a  new  sense  of  compunction.  When 
an  experienced  settlement  worker  visited  the  homes 
of  all  the  young  men  and  boys  involved  in  the  crime, 
she  discovered  that  all  but  one  of  them  had  been 
born  in  the  old  country  and  brought  to  America 
when  quite  young;  the  parents  were  laboring  people 
without  education  or  privilege;  the  fathers  were  ab- 
sorbed in  the  dreary  grind  of  earning  food  and  shelter 
for  their  large  families  in  this  new  land  where  work 
is  none  too  plentiful  and  where  there  are  so  many  prob- 
lems for  the  immigrant;  the  mothers  were  absorbed 
in  the  care  of  their  younger  children.  One  mother 
said,  "I  have  had  fourteen  children  and  have  had  no 
life  outside  my  kitchen.  You  see  how  that  is.  How 
could  I  see  where  my  boy  was  going?"  All  of  the 
mothers  admitted  that  they  asked  no  questions  about 
the  work  their  boys  were  doing  nor  the  conditions 
under  which  it  was  done,  whether  they  found  the  work 
congenial  or  distasteful.  The  only  question  was, 
"How  much  money  on  Saturday?"  The  father  of 
two  of  the  boys  said,  less  than  a  week  before  the  day 
set  for  the  execution,  "I  don't  care  what  they  do  with 
them;  they  may  hang  them  or  shoot  them;  it  is  noth- 
ing to  me."    On  being  asked  how  he,  the  father,  could 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  lOQ 

speak  so  brutally  of  his  own  sons,  he  answered  with  a 
shrug  of  his  shoulders,  ''Neither  of  those  boys  ever 
brought  home  a  penny." 

In  one  of  the  other  homes  where  eleven  people  lived 
in  two  dark,  unsanitary,  rear  basement  rooms,  the  old 
father,  a  rag  picker  by  profession,  recounting  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  crime,  told  how  the  other  boys  had 
urged  his  son  Phihp  to  go  out  with  them  on  the  night 
of  the  murder.  The  boy  left  the  house  saying  he  would 
return  soon.  In  the  morning  the  old  father,  coming 
from  the  bedroom  into  the  kitchen,  "looked  all  around 
on  the  floor,  but  Philip  was  not  there,"  an  uncon- 
scious commentary  upon  Philip's  sleeping  accommoda- 
tions. The  mother  of  the  youngest  boy,  crying  over 
the  tub  as  she  bent  to  the  family  washing,  said  that  he 
had  "always  been  a  good  boy  at  home."  She  was 
much  distressed  that  his  little  sister,  twelve  years  old 
and  suffering  from  tuberculosis,  had  become  so  ex- 
cited over  the  news  of  her  brother's  fate  that  she  had 
had  a  hemorrhage  and  would  probably  die.  When 
asked  where  her  boy  had  spent  his  evening,  she 
replied,  "Maybe  at  the  corner  over  there;  how  should 
I  know?    He  never  tells  me." 

The  reasoning  of  these  parents  was  not  altogether 
illogical— that  if  their  boys  were  old  and  wise  enough 
to  find  work  for  themselves  and  could  go  off  to  another 
part  of  the  city  of  which  their  parents  knew  nothing, 


no  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

they  were  also  old  enough  and  wise  enough  to  find  their 
own  amusement  in  their  hours  out  of  work  and,  at 
least,  it  was  utterly  useless  for  the  parents  to  inter- 
fere. They  had  all  been  brought  up  in  Chicago's  most 
congested  area. 

Nearly  ninety  per  cent  of  the  boys  in  the  County 
Jail  come  from  the  congested  districts  of  the  city, 
where  the  neighborhood  conditions  are  very  bad  and 
the  boys  are  surrounded  on  every  side  by  evil  in- 
fluences. The  home  is  bad,  saloons  line  the  streets, 
and  at  the  back  doors  are  the  railroad  tracks  and 
dumping  grounds. 

In  a  study  of  lOo  cases  made  by  the  Association, 
of  boys  between  the  ages  of  17  and  21  confined  in  the 
County  Jail,  we  derived  the  following  facts  in  regard 
to  their  occupations.  That  because  they  are  forced  to 
enter  the  industrial  world  early  without  any  trade, 
such  boys  work  at  any  odd  job  they  can  get.  These 
jobs  they  *'hold  down"  on  the  average  time  of  three 
months,  then  they  change,  not  only  to  another  place, 
but  in  many  cases  to  another  kind  of  work,  in  one  in- 
stance from  messenger  boy  to  dishwasher  in  a  res- 
taurant. Naturally  such  a  lad  grows  up  without  a 
steady  trade  or  skill  in  any  one  occupation.  According 
to  the  government  reports,  the  wages  of  the  unskilled 
laborer  who  leaves  school  before  he  is  14  years  of  age 
increase  slowly  until  he  is  21  years  old — from  $3.00  to 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  III 

$10.00  per  week — remain  stationary  until  he  is  forty 
years  old,  when  his  earning  capacity  begins  to  decline. 
From  the  statistics  obtained  by  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  officers  in  regard  to  the  100  boys  investi- 
gated, we  learned  that  only  three  per  cent  had  a  trade; 
the  rest  were  without  any  preparation  for  earning  a 
livelihood;  further,  only  six  per  cent  worked  at  an  occu- 
pation they  liked  and  all  the  others  were  obliged  to  do 
anything  that  came  their  way.  Of  19  boys  who  had  an 
ambition  to  become  machinists,  4  worked  as  wagon 
boys,  I  as  a  farmer,  3  as  errand  boys,  i  as  an  office  boy, 
4  as  laborers,  2  as  grocery  clerks,  3  as  store  boys  and 
I  as  a  chauffeur. 

Out  of  the  100  cases,  only  9  came  from  homes  con- 
sidered good  in  the  opinion  of  the  investigator.  Of 
the  9  offenders  who  had  good  homes,  8  were  intoxi- 
cated when  they  committed  the  crime.  This  is  an 
eloquent  comment  on  the  saloon  regulation  in  our  city, 
for  all  these  offenders  were  minors,  hence  each  case  was 
an  instance  of  violation  of  the  law  forbidding  the  sale 
of  liquor  to  minors.  Not  only  did  these  lads  get  what 
they  wanted,  but  in  several  cases  it  was  discovered 
later  that  the  saloon  keepers  were  in  league  with  the 
would-be  criminals.  Thus,  one  boy  had  been  urged 
to  commit  a  robbery  by  a  friend  of  the  saloon  keeper; 
another  boy  ''had  to  drink  to  keep  up  his  courage.'^ 
In  commenting  on  this,  the  investigator  says,  "The 


112  SAFEGUARDS   FOR   CITY   YOUTH 

heavy  Kcense  imposed  upon  saloon  keepers  and  the 
graft  which  is  ahnost  inseparable  from  this  business, 
make  the  saloon  keepers  nearly  desperate  in  their 
anxiety  to  cover  their  considerable  expenses  and,  as 
they  put  it,  "they  are  forced  to  break  the  laws  in 
every  way  they  possibly  can  without  being  caught.'* 

The  experience  of  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion with  boys  in  the  Cook  County  Jail  has  led  them 
to  believe  that  in  addition  to  the  Juvenile  Court  we 
need  to  still  further  specialize  and  have  a  court  for 
the  juvenile  adult — the  term  the  English  use  for  the 
boy  between  the  ages  of  17  and  21,  the  boy  who  is  too 
old  for  the  Juvenile  Court,  but  not  old  enough  to  vote 
and  therefore  not  old  enough  to  be  measured  by  the 
same  standards  as  those  we  apply  to  an  adult. 

A  large  number  of  the  boys  who  are  arrested  as  first 
offenders  are  full  of  the  spirit  of  adventure;  many  of 
them,  with  a  recklessness  arising  from  the  new  sense 
of  freedom  and  absence  of  parental  control,  frequently 
get  into  difficulty  and  perpetrate  some  forbidden  act 
which  may  be  technically  classified  as  a  crime  although 
it  is  quite  free  from  vicious  intent. 

Physicians  assert  that  the  boy  at  this  age  is  still  in 
his  later  adolescent  period;  these  years  are  his  forma- 
tive ones  and  yet  at  this  time  we  so  often  apply  puni- 
tive measures  of  the  severest  type.  One  of  the  most 
painful  cases  of  this  sort  was  brought  to  the  attention 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  1 13 

of  the  Association  by  the  mother  of  a  boy  who  came 
with  a  letter  written  in  a  state  penitentiary  in  In- 
diana. Her  son  had  made  no  effort  at  the  time  of  his 
trial  to  communicate  with  his  family,  but  after  eight- 
een months  in  prison  he  wrote  to  his  mother  telUng 
her  how  sorry  he  was  for  all  the  trouble  and  disgrace 
he  had  brought  upon  the  family  and  ended  his  letter 
by  saying:  ''I  am  counting  every  day  until  I  can  go 
home.  Give  my  love  to  father  and  my  brothers  and 
sisters  and  the  dear  old  dog  if  he  is  still  Uving,  and 
cheer  up,  Mother  dear,  it  will  be  only  eighteen  and  a 
half  more  years  before  I  shall  see  you."  His  mother 
gave  us  the  details  of  the  pitiful  story.  Her  son  John 
when  he  was  ten  years  old,  lost  his  father.  She  had 
married  again  and  the  stepfather  was  not  very  kind 
to  the  little  boy,  who  was  an  imaginative  child  and 
often  in  trouble  because  he  preferred  to  read  rather 
than  to  work  on  the  farm. 

When  John  was  fourteen  years  old  he  ran  away 
from  home  to  the  nearest  large  city  where  he  joined  the 
Naval  Reserves.  He  swore  that  he  was  sixteen  years 
old  and  as  he  was  large  and  well  grown  for  his  years 
this  statement  was  not  questioned. 

He  served  in  the  Reserves  for  two  years  but  was 
very  homesick  and  at  the  end  of  this  term  he  made 
up  his  mind  to  return  home,  a  distance  of  about  two 
hundred  miles.     He  had  no  money,  but  for  an  ener- 


114  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

getic  boy  the  distance  had  no  terrors  and  by  doing  odd 
jobs  for  the  farmers'  wives  he  earned  his  food  and  shel- 
ter. It  was  late  in  the  fall  when  one  night  after  a 
long  tramp  he  found  himself  near  a  little  village. 
He  asked  at  several  houses  for  food  and  shelter,  but 
was  rather  roughly  refused.  He  was  both  cold  and 
hungry  and  as  he  approached  the  outskirts  of  the 
village  he  saw  a  small  grocery  store.  No  one  seemed 
near  and  he  raised  a  window,  entered  the  shop  and 
began  to  eat  some  crackers  that  he  found  on  a  shelf. 
He  was  seen  by  the  village  watchman  who  hastily 
shot  him  in  the  shoulder.  He  was  then  arrested, 
tried  and  convicted  of  robbery  and  sentenced  to 
twenty  years  in  the  penitentiary.  He  protested 
against  this  sentence,  saying  that  he  was  only  sixteen 
years  old,  and  too  young  to  be  sent  to  the  penitentiary, 
but  as  he  had  sworn  two  years  earlier,  when  entering 
the  Naval  Reserves,  that  he  was  then  sixteen,  he 
was  not  believed  and  the  sentence  was  carried  out. 
When  John  reached  the  prison,  he  was  put  to  work 
in  the  machine  shop,  but  being  still  weak  from  the 
wound  in  his  shoulder  caused  by  the  watchman's  shot, 
he  fell  against  the  machinery  and  had  the  fingers  of 
his  left  hand  taken  off.  Upon  the  advice  of  the  Associ- 
ation the  mother,  in  order  to  prove  that  he  was  under 
legal  age  when  convicted  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary, 
secured  from  the  little  village  in  the  east  where  he 


lis-         \ 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  II5 

was  born  his  baptismal  certificate  and  the  Association 
went  with  it  to  the  Governor  of  the  state  where  he 
was  imprisoned.  His  parole  was  recommended  by  the 
Governor  and  he  was  paroled  by  the  State  Board  of 
Pardons.  His  release  however  came  too  late,  for  he 
had  contracted  tuberculosis  in  the  prison  where  the  » 
death  rate  for  that  disease  is  always  so  high  and, 
after  a  brave  fight  for  Hfe,  he  died  at  a  sanitarium. 

While  not  all  arrests  of  adolescents  end  so  dis- 
astrously, it  is  evident  that  our  whole  system  of  deal- 
ing with  the  youthful  criminal  is  wrong.  At  present 
he  is  arrested  and  thrown  into  a  cell  at  a  police  station, 
often  with  habitual  criminals;  then  he  is  brought  be- 
fore a  municipal  judge  who  knows  nothing  about  him 
except  the  evidence  that  is  brought  out  at  the  pre- 
Hminary  hearing  and,  if  this  is  convincing,  he  is  held 
to  the  Grand  Jury  and  in  the  meantime  confined  in 
the  County  Jail,  where  he  frequently  remains  from 
three  weeks  to  three  months  before  he  is  brought  to 
trial.  An  outrageous  case  of  this  sort  came  to  the  at- 
tention of  the  Association  a  year  ago. 

John  and  George  Loomis  were  brothers.  John 
lived  at  home  in  the  southern  part  of  Chicago  and 
worked  long  hours  in  a  steel  mill.  George  was  a  janitor 
and  lived  away  from  home,  only  returning  occasion- 
ally to  see  his  family. 

John  hurried  home  from  work  every  night  to  take 


Il6  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

care  of  some  pigeons  which  he  kept  in  a  dovecote 
built  of  old  lumber  on  the  top  of  the  house.  These 
birds  were  not  only  a  great  delight  to  their  young 
owner,  but  were  fast  becoming  a  source  of  revenue. 

A  saloon  keeper  in  the  neighborhood  who  also  kept 
pigeons  found  one  day  that  some  of  them  had  disap- 
peared and  hastily  came  to  the  conclusion  that,  be- 
cause young  John  Loomis  was  so  enthusiastic  over 
his  flourishing  flock,  be  must  be  the  thief.  He  excit- 
edly made  a  specific  charge  to  the  pohceman  on  that 
beat  who  inmiediately  went  to  the  Loomis  home  and, 
without  a  search  warrant,  overhauled  the  dovecote 
where  he  claimed  he  found  some  pigeons  which  bore 
the  mark  which  the  saloon  keeper  described  as  his. 
The  officer,  again  without  a  warrant,  arrested  George 
who  had  just  come  home  to  see  his  mother  and  who 
had  no  interest  in  the  pigeons  whatever  and  denied 
having  had  anything  to  do  with  a  possible  theft. 

The  next  day  the  officer  went  to  the  steel  mill  and 
arrested  John  while  at  work,  although  the  boy  pro- 
tested his  innocence.  John  said  that  he  knew  of  no 
mark  other  than  that  he  had  always  used  for  his  own 
birds  and  that  he  had  none  marked  with  the  ring 
which  the  saloon  keeper  claimed  was  his  mark. 

In  spite  of  the  boys'  persistent  denials  of  the  theft 
they  were  taken  to  the  police  station  and  because  the 
saloon  keeper  kept  his  birds  in  a  shed  in  his  back  yard 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  I17 

and  insisted  that  they  had  been  stolen  from  there,  the 
two  boys  were  charged  with  burglary. 

At  the  preHminary  hearing  the  poHceman  testified 
that  he  had  found  the  pigeons  in  the  dovecote  on  the 
top  of  the  Loomis  house.  The  judge  looked  at  George, 
who  was  rather  unattractive  in  appearance  and  small 
for  his  age,  and  said,  ''If  I  had  to  select  the  thief, 
I'd  pick  out  this  one."  In  reply  to  the  challenge, 
"Would  your  honor  call  a  boy  a  thief  because  of 
his  appearance?"  the  judge  replied,  ''In  this  case  I 
would."  The  boys  were  then  held  to  the  Grand  Jury 
and  sent  to  the  County  Jail  to  await  their  trial. 

When  the  Grand  Jury  met,  the  policeman  again 
gave  his  testimony.  The  Grand  Jury  found  a  true 
bill  and  the  boys  were  held  for  trial.  They  were  unable 
to  furnish  bond,  which  was  placed  at  $i,ooo  each  and 
were  therefore  confined  for  six  weeks  in  the  County 
Jail  to  wait  until  their  case  should  be  brought  up  in  the 
criminal  court. 

George  was  placed  with  the  older  criminals  and 
both  boys,  although  accustomed  to  hard  work,  had 
no  exercise  during  their  confinement  in  the  jail  save 
walking  in  the  corridors,  and  for  the  companionship 
of  the  pigeons  was  substituted  the  company  of  old 
and  experienced  criminals. 

When  their  trial  was  finally  held,  the  officer  tried  to 
bring  out  stories  of  the  boys'  previous  misconduct. 


Il8  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

He  was  however  unable  to  prove  his  charges  and  the 
judge  refused  to  admit  it  as  testimony.  It  was  obvi- 
ous that  the  entire  evidence  was  both  insufficient  and 
flimsy  and  the  boys  were  found  not  guilty  and  dis- 
charged. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  describe  the  state  of  mind  of 
the  two  boys  on  their  return  to  their  home  in  South 
Chicago  where  they  hved;  they  felt  both  disgraced  and 
defiant,  and  were  smarting  under  a  keen  sense  of  in- 
justice. It  is  too  soon  to  tell  whether  these  two  honest, 
hardworking  boys  have  been  permanently  ruined  by 
their  experience. 

These  and  similar  instances  drew  the  attention  of 
the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  to  the  large  nimi- 
ber  of  juvenile  adults  who  were  confined  in  the 
County  Jail. 

In  addition  to  the  one  hundred  boys  referred  to 
earlier  in  this  chapter,  the  Association  through  another 
investigation  found  that  in  the  year  191 1  1,328  boys 
imder  21  years  of  age  were  confined  there;  599  of 
these  boys  were  first  offenders  who  had  never  before 
been  arrested.  The  Association  found  that  the 
conditions  under  which  these  boys  were  confined 
were  most  injurious  both  morally  and  physically. 
They  are  kept  in  their  cells  all  day  with  the  exception 
of  4  hours  out  of  the  24.  During  this  time  they  are 
put  in  a  large  room  where  they  are  crowded  together, 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  1 19 

sometimes  as  many  as  83  at  a  time.  The  boys  who 
are  unused  to  confinement  suffer  from  lack  of  fresh 
air  and  their  idleness  and  association  with  professional 
criminals  in  the  jail  frequently  give  them  their  first 
lessons  in  crime  and  inevitably  lower  their  moral 
standards. 

It  was  found  that  many  of  these  boys  were  confined 
in  jail  for  a  long  time,  sometimes  for  three  months. 
If  the  boy  had  no  lawyer  to  defend  him,  one  was  of 
course  assigned  to  him  by  the  judge,  but  frequently 
the  lawyer  would  take  no  interest  in  the  case  and 
perhaps  would  not  go  into  it  until  a  day  or  two  before 
the  boy  would  appear  for  trial;  or  would  make  no 
effort  to  secure  the  evidence  which  would  have  cleared 
the  boy. 

A  victim  of  such  carelessness  was  a  boy  who  wanted 
to  go  fishing  and  with  his  fishing  rod  in  his  hand 
boarded  a  freight  train.  Unfortunately  the  train  did 
not  stop  at  the  lake  where  he  intended  to  fish,  so  he 
pulled  the  air  brakes  in  order  that  he  might  get  off. 
He  was  seen  doing  this,  was  arrested  and  charged  with 
train-wrecking  and  would  have  been  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary had  not  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association 
put  in  a  plea  on  his  behalf. 

In  many  cases  boys  are  confined  for  a  long  time  in 
jail  because  the  witnesses  concerned  in  the  case  are 
out  of  town.    A  case  of  this  kind  was  that  of  a  boy 


I20  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

who  had  come  from  the  west  to  Chicago  to  find  work. 
He  had  used  up  all  his  money  and  was  obUged  to 
walk  the  last  fifty  miles.  As  he  reached  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  he  joined  a  band  of  boys  gathered  around 
a  bonfire  where  they  were  trying  to  bum  some  goods 
they  had  stolen.  When  the  entire  gang  was  arrested 
the  western  boy  was  taken  with  them,  even  although 
the  gang  said  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  mat- 
ter. He  was  in  prison  for  three  months  before  he  was 
brought  to  trial. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  decided  that 
it  would  be  an  excellent  plan  to  place  one  of  its  officers 
at  the  jail  to  interrogate  the  boys  brought  there,  to 
find  out  their  stories  and  then  through  an  investiga- 
tion of  their  homes  to  discover  how  far  their  state- 
ments were  correct.  This  was  done  in  cooperation  with 
the  reform  department  of  the  Chicago  Woman's  Club. 

The  representative  of  the  Association  interviewed 
all  the  boys  in  the  jail  and  afterwards  investigators 
were  sent  to  the  boys'  homes  to  find  out  how  far  the 
stories  were  correct.  In  seven  months  500  boys  in  the 
jail  were  interviewed,  and  it  was  found  that  89%  told 
the  truth  about  themselves.  Investigation  developed 
the  fact  that  if,  at  the  time  of  the  arrest  of  the  218 
boys  held  to  the  Grand  Jury,  investigators  could  have 
been  sent  to  their  homes  so  that  the  Municipal  Court 
judge  might  have  had  information  concerning  the 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  121 

facts,  107  of  the  218  boys  could  have  been  tried  in  the 
Municipal  Court. 

Our  whole  system  of  dealing  with  the  youthful 
criminal  is  wrong.  If,  when  the  boy  is  first  arrested, 
viR  investigation  could  be  made  of  his  case  by  some 
impartial  body  so  that  the  judge  might  have  all  the 
facts  before  him  at  the  first  hearing,  it  is  estimated 
that  fifty  per  cent  of  the  boys  who  are  confined  in  the 
County  Jail  need  not  be  sent  there,  as  their  cases 
would  be  settled  in  the  lower  courts. 

Unfortunately,  our  laws  provide  the  same  punish- 
ment for  every  person  who  has  committed  the  same 
forbidden  act — only  the  term  of  the  punishment  vary- 
ing at  the  discretion  of  the  judge.  The  law  does  not 
take  into  account  whether  the  prisoner  is  young  or  old, 
whether  it  is  his  first  offense  or  whether  he  is  a  hard- 
ened criminal.  It  does  not  provide  any  means  through 
which  the  judge  can  learn  his  previous  history,  his 
heredity  or  environment.  It  is  exactly,  some  one 
has  said,  as  if  a  physician  administered  the  same 
medicine  to  every  patient  whose  temperature  rose  to  a 
certain  height,  without  making  any  inquiry  as  to 
symptoms,  previous  history  or  the  cause  of  the  illness. 

Many  of  the  boys  interviewed  by  our  officer  were 
quite  as  childish  and  unformed  as  the  younger  boys 
who  are  brought  into  the  Juvenile  Court.  One  boy 
was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  burglary;  it  was  claimed 


122  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

that  he  had  stolen  an  automobile.  He  was  held  to  the 
Grand  Jury,  and  for  over  two  months  was  confined 
in  the  County  Jail.  Fortunately  for  the  boy,  the  Ju- 
venile Protective  Association  investigated  his  case;  the 
evidence  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  boy  came  to  Chi- 
cago in  order  to  improve  a  certain  apparatus  for  auto- 
mobile speeding.  With  a  hundred  dollars  in  his  posses- 
sion, he  rented  a  little  shop  and  worked  continually 
upon  his  invention.  According  to  the  testimony  of  the 
neighbors,  he  worked  day  and  night.  While  thus  occu- 
pied he  came  upon  a  certain  part  of  the  regular  auto- 
mobile machinery  which  was  a  mystery  to  him.  He 
did  not  understand  its  operation,  and  the  only  way  he 
could  find  out  was  to  see  a  machine  of  that  type  in 
working  order.  He  went  from  his  shop  and  took  the 
first  automobile  he  could  find  that  had  this  contriv- 
ance. He  brought  the  machine  to  his  shop,  took  it  to 
pieces  and  studied  it  carefully.  He  was  arrested  while 
working  upon  it.  The  boy  had  in  his  shop  all  kinds  of 
drawings  pertaining  to  automobiles  which  he  had  made 
himself.  There  was  no  doubt  about  his  mechanical 
abihty  and  it  was  clear  that  he  did  not  mean  to  keep 
the  automobile.  The  Juvenile  Protective  Association 
presented  these  facts  to  the  presiding  judge,  who  gave 
a  light  sentence  of  three  months  in  the  city  prison. 

Another  country  boy  had  come  to  Chicago  to  find 
work.    With  his  grip  in  his  hand  he  walked  along  the 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS    1 23 

Streets  looking  into  the  shop  windows  and  incidentally 
for  a  place  to  board.  As  he  stopped  for  a  moment  in 
front  of  a  shoe  store,  two  boys  came  up  behind  him, 
broke  the  glass  in  a  show  case  in  front  of  the  store  and 
took  some  of  the  goods  displayed  there.  The  irate  pro- 
prietor rushed  out,  collared  the  country  boy  and  ac- 
cused him  of  abetting  the  theft.  A  policeman  was 
called,  the  boy  was  arrested,  arraigned  in  the  Mu- 
nicipal Court  and,  on  testimony  of  the  store  prop^^*  - 
etor  and  the  policeman,  held  to  the  Grand  Jury.  ?-7l 
spent  several  weeks  in  jail,  at  the  end  of  which  time 
the  Grand  Jury  found  no  bill. 

During  1913,  12,151  boys  between  the  ages  of  16 
and  20  years  had  been  arrested  in  the  city  of  Chicago : 
about  half  of  this  number  were  first  offenders.  In  19 13 
1,261  boys  were  confined  in  the  County  Jail  and  of  this 
number  804  were  first  offenders;  166  had  been  ar- 
rested for  the  second  time;  47  for  the  third  time;  22 
the  fourth  time;  7  the  fifth  time  and  14  innumerable 
times.  Most  of  these  first  offenders  were  not  criminals 
at  heart  or  by  choice,  but  boys  who  were  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  adventure.  Many  of  them  had  yielded  to 
some  sudden  and  overwhelming  temptation;  but  it  was 
believed  that  if  put  under  wise  probational  guidance 
and  their  environment  readjusted  they  might  become 
good  citizens.  In  jail  they  become  embittered  and 
grow  "wise."    It  has  been  well  said  that  the  jails  of 


124  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

our  country  furnish  a  post-graduate  course  in  crime  in 
a  school  maintained  by  the  government  with  a  com- 
pulsory attendance. 

Chicago  is  fortunate  in  having  at  the  head  of  its 
Municipal  Courts  a  Chief  Justice  who  has  already 
specialized  and  sociaUzed  the  courts  of  Chicago,  and 
who,  convinced  by  the  arguments  and  perhaps  more 
so  by  the  material  accumulated  by  the  Association, 

."^ larch,  1Q14,  established  a  branch  of  the  Municipal 
Court  of  Chicago,  to  be  known  as  the  Boys'  Court. 
He  almost  immediately  founded  a  psychopathic  lab- 
oratory in  connection  with  the  Court.  While  we  all 
anticipated  that  a  certain  number  of  the  boys  would 
be  sub-normal,  we  were  hardly  prepared  for  the  first 
figures.  During  the  first  three  weeks  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  laboratory,  95  boys  brought  into  the 
court  were  found  to  be  sub-normal;  many  of  them  with 
the  intelligence  of  a  little  child,  although  with  the 
body  and  passions  of  a  man.  One  boy  who  had  mur- 
dered his  employer  and  also  his  employer's  wife  and 
daughter  responded  to  the  mental  tests  of  a  child  of 
eight  and  a  half  years;  in  addition  this  huge  fellow 
was  discovered  to  be  suffering  with  a  serious  valvular 
difficulty  of  the  heart,  a  brain  lesion,  and  dementia 
precox.  He  had  been  hired  to  a  farmer  and  was  ex- 
pected to  do  a  man's  full  work.  For  a  year  he  had 
been  scolded  and  driven  by  his  employer  and  when  the 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS    1 25 

latter,  in  a  moment  of  exasperation,  threatened  him 
with  an  axe,  the  boy  was  seized  with  one  of  the  un- 
reasoning rages  of  childhood  and,  in  a  bUnd  fury,  killed 
every  human  being  on  the  farm,  although  when  he 
rode  a  horse  into  town  afterwards,  he  was  much  dis- 
tressed because  he  feared  the  animal  had  become  over- 
heated. He  stood  in  court,  as  bewildered  and  fright- 
ened as  any  child  eight  years  old  might  have  been. 
Had  his  stature  attained  only  the  growth  of  his  mind 
he  would  have  lacked  the  strength  to  have  accom- 
plished a  murder  and  his  outbreak  would  have  been 
regarded  with  the  leniency  we  accord  to  the  tantrums 
of  a  child.  Is  not  society  under  obligations  to  place 
such  a  boy  in  a  school  fitted  to  his  intelligence,  to 
keep  him  there  during  his  life,  with  a  self-supporting 
occupation,  that  he  may  not  be  a  source  of  danger  to 
the  community? 

The  Association  is  at  present  making  a  careful 
study  of  sub-normal  children,  of  whom  it  is  estimated 
that  there  are  about  6,000  in  Chicago.  Approximately 
only  one-tenth  of  this  number  can  be  received  at  the 
one  State  Institution  for  the  Feeble-Minded  in  Illi- 
nois. The  so-called  ''teachables"  numbering  about 
900  are  in  the  ungraded  rooms  of  the  public  schools, 
where  such  instruction  is  given  them  as  they  are 
capable  of  receiving,  but  the  greatest  difficulty  is 
found  when  they  have  passed  the  a§e  of  compulsory 


126  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

attendance  at  school  and,  at  the  age  of  14,  obtain 
their  working  certificates.  A  teacher  in  one  of  these 
rooms  investigated  500  of  these  children  and  found 
that  80%  of  them  had  been  totally  imable  to  hold  a 
position.  One  characteristic  of  such  children  is  lack 
of  ability  to  make  a  continuous  efifort.  These  children 
therefore  tend  to  be  constantly  on  the  street,  either 
when  they  are  ostensibly  in  search  of  work  or  when 
they  are  permanently  out  of  a  job.  One  of  the  teachers 
estimated  that  in  her  room,  of  22  children  who  had  re- 
cently taken  out  their  working  certificates,  14  were  a 
definite  menace  to  the  community.  Some  of  the  most 
horrible  cases  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Associa- 
tion have  been  those  connected  with  sub-normal  chil- 
dren. 

A  large  number  of  children  are  excluded  from  school 
as  unteachable  because  they  are  too  deficient  even  for 
sub-normal  rooms.  There  is  no  detention  school  for 
these  children  and  no  place  to  which  they  can  be  sent, 
other  than  the  always  over-crowded  State  School  for 
the  Feeble-Minded.  No  attempt  is  made  either  by 
the  school  or  civic  authorities  to  follow  them  up.  Ex- 
cluded from  the  schools  and  unable  to  secure  employ- 
ment, they  now  walk  our  streets  and  many  of  them 
will  in  later  years  fill  our  jails. 

Authority  should  be  given  to  the  judge  of  the  Ju- 
venile Court  to  commit  to  some  public  institution  any 


LEGAL  PROTECTION  FOR  DELINQUENTS  127 

child  SO  sub-normal  as  to  be  unteachable  or  who  is 
pronounced  to  be  a  menace  to  the  community  by  the 
psychopathic  cHnic  connected  with  that  Court. 

The  successful  treatment  of  dehnquent  children, 
whether  of  Juvenile  Court  age  or  older,  evidently  im- 
plies many  modifications  not  only  in  court  procedure 
but  radical  changes  in  the  methods  of  education,  condi- 
tions of  employment  and  facihties  for  recreation.  Per- 
haps our  sole  claim  to  betterment  at  the  present 
moment  lies  in  the  fact  that  pubUc  attention  has  been 
during  the  last  few  years  successfully  focused  upon  the 
problems  of  the  juvenile  delinquent. 

Miss  Julia  C.  Lathrop,  head  of  the  Federal  Chil- 
dren's Bureau,  once  wrote,  "Important  as  are  the 
immediate  services  of  a  Juvenile  Court  to  the  children 
who  are  daily  brought  before  it  for  protection  and 
guidance;  painstaking  as  are  the  Court's  methods  of 
ascertaining  the  facts  which  account  for  the  child's 
trouble,  his  family  history,  his  own  physical  and  men- 
tal state;  hopeful  as  are  the  results  of  probation,  yet 
the  great  primary  service  of  the  Court  is  that  it  lifts 
up  the  truth  and  compels  us  to  see  that  wastage  of 
human  life,  whose  sign  is  the  child  in  Court.  Here- 
tofore the  kindly  but  hurried  public  never  saw  as  a 
whole  what  it  cannot  now  avoid  seeing— the  sad  pro- 
cession of  Httle  children  and  older  brothers  and  sisters 
who  for  various  reasons  cannot  keep  step  with  the 
great  company  of  normal,  orderly,  protected  children." 


CHAPTER  V 

LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT 

In  addition  to  the  legal  cases  concerning  children 
and  young  people,  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association 
has  dealt  every  year  with  approximately  three  thou- 
sand cases  of  parents  who  were  Hable  to  prosecution 
under  the  law  designated  as  Contributing  to  Delin- 
quency and  Dependency  of  Children.  As  such  parents 
were  taken  into  first  one  Municipal  Court  and  then 
another,  it  was  found  that  the  various  judges  had  no 
concerted  plan  of  treatment  and  that  there  was  no 
uniformity  of  action;  one  man  would  perhaps  be  sent 
to  the  city  prison  and  another,  guilty  of  the  same  of- 
fense, would  be  put  on  probation,  and  still  another 
dismissed  with  a  reprimand.  The  executive  committee 
of  the  Association,  having  gradually  accumulated 
statistics  on  this  matter,  many  times  consulted  with 
the  Chief  Justice  as  to  the  estabhshment  of  a  separate 
court  where  all  cases  involving  domestic  relations 
could  be  tried.  With  his  usual  open  mind  and  with 
characteristic  desire  to  add  to  the  efficiency  of  Chicago 
courts,  the  Chief  Justice  has  designated  a  branch  of 

128 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   1 29 

the  Municipal  Court  known  as  the  Court  of  Domestic 
Relations  to  which  all  such  cases  are  brought  for  trial. 

The  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  received  1,756 
cases  during  the  first  nine  months  of  its  existence.  Of 
that  number,  154  were  discharged  by  the  court,  7  by 
the  jury,  102  were  dismissed  on  account  of  insufficient 
evidence,  and  302  were  dismissed  at  the  request  of  the 
wives,  who  were  the  plaintiffs.  Out  of  102  cases 
which  were  dismissed  for  insufficient  evidence,  more 
than  half  showed  upon  investigation  that  the  domestic 
conditions  involved  had  changed  for  the  better.  Out 
of  the  total  number  of  the  1,756  defendants  only  166 
were  imprisoned.  All  but  300  of  the  men  charged  with 
abandonment,  bastardy,  delinquency  and  dependency 
were  more  than  25  years  old.  Of  the  26  nationahties, 
the  largest  number  were  found  to  be  Americans,  Ger- 
many came  second,  and  Russia  third. 

In  the  first  nine  months,  $20,077  was  collected 
through  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  and  almost 
twice  as  much  was  paid  directly  to  the  famihes.  This 
means  that  over  sixty  thousand  dollars  has  been  col- 
lected which  in  all  probability  would  not  have  been 
available  for  the  plaintiffs  and  their  families  were  it 
not  for  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  with  its  ex- 
cellent system  of  "follow-up"  work  and  its  poHcy  of 
cooperation  with  the  volunteer  organizations  through- 
out the  city. 


130  SAPEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

In  the  dependency  cases,  the  court  has  found  that 
in  about  90%  the  unsatisfactory  condition  is  caused 
through  the  drinking  habits  of  one  or  both  parents. 
The  records  of  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association 
show  that  in  all  of  their  cases  filed  under  the  head  of 
"family  cases"  83.9%  involved  habits  of  drink.  Be- 
fore an  average  of  this  kind  is  taken  on  its  face 
value,  however,  the  interdependence  of  poverty,  en- 
tailing insuflScient  food  and  uncomfortable  housing, 
with  the  desire  for  drink,  should  always  be  borne  in 
mind.  It  is  often  a  matter  of  doubt  in  a  given  case 
whether  to  diagnose  poverty  or  drink  as  the  super- 
inducing cause.  As  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations 
deals  with  all  ofifenses  against  the  mother  and  the 
child,  the  unfortunate  woman  first  tells  her  story 
to  one  of  the  social  secretaries  to  the  judge.  Both 
these  secretaries  are  women  who  are  often  able  to 
adjust  cases  without  bringing  them  into  court.  The 
first  social  secretary,  in  one  year,  with  the  coopera- 
tion of  other  agencies  in  the  city,  settled  2,776  cases 
out  of  court,  thus  saving  much  trouble  and  mortifica- 
tion to  a  large  number  of  people.  The  women  who 
come  to  this  court  are  often  obhged  to  bring  their 
children  with  them.  These  children  are  looked  after 
by  a  trained  nurse  in  a  comfortable  nursery,  that  the 
mother  with  a  free  mind  may  devote  her  time  and  at- 
tention to  presenting  her  case. 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   131 

Some  of  the  more  piteous  cases  brought  into  court 
are  those  filed  under  the  head  of  "bastardy,"  a  type 
of  case  in  which  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association 
is  much  interested  for  it  is  obliged  to  deal  constantly 
with  young  girls — some  of  them  only  thirteen  and 
fourteen  years  old — who  are  the  mothers  of  illegit- 
imate children.  In  so  many  instances  the  baby  had 
been  "disposed  of,"  so  often  the  description  of  the 
process  was  inadequate  not  to  say  mysterious  and 
baffling,  that  three  years  ago  the  Association  re- 
solved to  make  a  study  concerning  the  disposition  of 
illegitimate  children  in  Chicago;  at  least  of  the  three 
thousand  children  born  each  year  in  the  registered 
hospitals  and  maternity  homes. 

As  a  result  of  this  investigation,  it  was  discovered 
that  at  least  a  third  of  these  children  were  so  abso- 
lutely lost  that  it  was  impossible  to  find  any  trace  of 
them,  even  to  know  whether  they  were  living  or  dead. 
Of  the  many  other  illegitimate,  children  born  each 
year  in  the  so-called  "private"  hospitals,  and  even 
in  less  reputable  places,  or  of  those  children  whose  very 
existence  was  concealed  by  distracted  mothers,  trusted 
physicians  and  midwives,  there  was,  of  course,  no 
record  to  be  found,  the  absolutely  inadequate  system 
of  birth  registration  enforced  in  Illinois  easily  lending 
itself  to  such  concealment. 

In  the  effort  to  find  these  lost  children  when  both 


132  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

parents  were  bent  upon  concealing  their  identity  and 
when  the  child  itself  had  been  caught  into  a  veritable 
system  for  hiding  its  existence,  the  difficulties  encoun- 
tered in  a  third  of  the  cases — approximately  a  thou- 
sand— were  absolutely  insurmountable.  The  natural 
assumption  was  that  many  of  these  children  had  died, 
although  their  deaths  are  not  included  in  the  regular 
reports.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  registered 
maternity  homes  and  hospitals  professed  great  care  in 
placing  out  children,  most  of  them  proved  to  be  crim- 
inally careless.  The  head  of  one  said,  **We  always 
ask  a  man  his  occupation  before  we  permit  him  to  take 
a  baby;"  another,  in  reply  to  the  question,  **What 
shall  we  bring  to  get  a  baby?"  answered,  "Oh,  bring 
a  shawl." 

The  clerk  of  one  hospital  made  this  statement: 
"The  illegitimate  children  are  given  away,  you  should 
see  the  grand  people  who  come  here  in  automobiles," 
while  a  frank  doctor  in  another  admitted,  "We  never 
let  a  mother  see  her  child,  for  when  she  does  she  is 
not  so  wilHng  to  part  from  it." 

The  superintendent  of  a  hospital  which  cares  for 
more  than  100  maternity  cases  per  year,  put  the  whole 
situation  in  high  relief  when  he  said,  "We  cannot  be 
at  all  sure  that  babies  are  not  murdered  as  soon  as  they 
are  taken  away  from  the  institution,  for  we  find  that 
practically  all  names  and  addresses  of  persons  who 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   133 

take  children  away  are  false."  "Giving  a  child  out," 
therefore,  in  the  words  of  an  investigator,  is  like  open- 
ing the  window  and  hurling  him  out — out  into  the 
vortex  of  the  world  and  no  one  knows  whither  he  has 
been  whirled  or  what  his  fate.  This  is  not  only  legally 
and  morally  criminal  but  furthermore  an  economic 
waste;  Professor  Irving  Fisher  of  Yale  puts  the  poten- 
tial value  of  every  child  at  $4,000.00.  Upon  this  esti- 
mate, annually  in  Chicago  $4,000,000  are  being  tossed 
out  of  sight.  The  conservation  of  these  millions  will 
never  be  accomplished  unless  some  one  quite  outside  of 
the  immediate  circle  of  relationship  takes  a  hand.  The 
babies  obviously  cannot  help  themselves,  the  mothers 
are  powerless.  The  well-meaning  hospitals  cannot 
always  prevent  the  mothers  from  making  arrange- 
ments for  disposing  of  their  children,  because  even 
the  worthy  people  who  wish  to  secure  a  child  for 
adoption  are  harassed  by  a  desire  for  secrecy,  which 
easily  lends  itself  to  the  mothers'  wish  for  conceal- 
ment. The  doctors  have  no  safe  method,  and  more- 
over do  not  consider  it  their  business  to  oversee  the 
disposition  of  the  children. 

In  spite  of  advancing  legislation  in  America  founded 
upon  the  excellent  system  in  operation  in  Leipsic  and 
upon  the  recommendations  offered  by  the  Child  Wel- 
fare Department  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  and 
by  the  American  Association  for  the  Prevention  of 


134  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Infant  Mortality,  Chicago  like  other  great  cities  con- 
tinues to  afford  all  too  easy  facilities  for  the  girl  who 
wishes  to  be  delivered  of  her  child  in  secret  and  to 
quietly  dispose  of  it  afterwards. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  after  the  Court 
of  Domestic  Relations  was  established  in  Chicago, 
gradually  came  to  the  conclusion  that,  with  notable 
exceptions,  the  best  protection  to  the  child  was  ob- 
tained when  the  cases  involving  the  birth  of  illegiti- 
mate children  were  taken  into  court. 

When  a  charge  of  bastardy  is  made  by  an  unmarried 
woman  against  the  man  whom  she  claims  is  the  father 
of  her  child,  she  has  at  least  the  courage  to  bring  the 
situation  into  the  open  and  proclaim  her  readiness  to 
acknowledge  her  child.  While  the  bastardy  trial  is  a 
sorry  substitute  for  a  marriage  ceremony,  it  at  least 
performs  one  of  the  functions  for  which  the  pubhc 
registration  of  marriage  is  designed,  that  of  making 
the  paternity  of  the  child  a  matter  of  court  record. 

The  girl  who  takes  her  case  into  court  also  puts  be- 
hind her  any  possibility  of  future  concealment  even 
although  her  child  should  be  stillborn,  for,  according 
to  the  lUinois  law,  "any  woman  who  endeavors  in 
any  way  to  conceal  the  death  of  a  child  which,  if  bom 
alive,  would  be  bastard,  whether  it  shall  have  been 
murdered  or  not,  shall  be  confined  in  the  Coimty  Jail 
not  exceeding  one  year."    The  girls  who  take  their 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   135 

cases  into  court,  on  the  whole,  have  more  character 
and  intelligence  than  those  other  unfortunate  women 
who  are  chiefly  concerned  in  conceahng  the  situation, 
and  whose  bewilderment  and  desperation  are  revealed 
by  the  pathetic  figures  which  show  that  mental  dis-x 
orders  in  the  mother  follow  illegitimate  births  twice  as 
frequently  as  they  follow  legitimate.  The  child  in- 
volved in  a  court  case  also  has  a  better  chance  for 
survival  than  the  child  involved  in  a  case  of  successful 
concealment. 

The  death  rate  among  illegitimate  children  is  twice 
as  high  as  that  among  legitimate  children.  If  the  un- 
married mother  is  a  domestic  servant  or  a  factory 
worker,  in  her  haste  to  return  to  her  employment  in 
order  that  she  may  earn  money,  her  child  is  placed  in 
a  baby  farm  when  it  is  scarcely  two  weeks  old  and  has 
but  a  poor  chance  to  survive  the  indifferent  care  it  re- 
ceives. In  the  court  cases,  the  situation  having  been 
openly  faced,  the  mother  more  often  retains  her  child 
or  it  is  cared  for  by  her  relatives. 

It  is  clearly  impossible  to  estimate  the  number  of 
children  born  each  year  in  Chicago  out  of  wedlock,  but 
it  is  obvious  that  but  a  minority  of  cases  are  brought 
into  court.  Last  year  the  total  number  of  bastardy 
cases  tried  in  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  was  469, 
less  than  a  sixth  of  the  number  of  illegitimate  chil- 
dren born  in  the  registered  hospitals  alone. 


136  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  made  a  second 
investigation  of  the  disposition  of  illegitimate  children 
a  year  ago,  restricting  it  to  five  hundred  cases  taken 
from  this  court.  In  the  study  of  these  so-called 
bastardy  cases,  the  investigators  were  at  least  able  to 
start  with  the  real  names  of  the  fathers  and  mothers. 
The  investigation  attempted  to  trace  the  fate  of  the 
children  and  also  to  discover  what  had  befallen  the 
mothers. 

Of  these  court  cases,  81  were  incomplete,  that  is, 
the  child  was  not  yet  born;  of  the  remaining  419,  the 
investigators  were  absolutely  unable  to  locate  256; 
so  that  the  final  study  outside  of  the  court  records 
was  based  upon  163  cases. 

Of  the  163  cases  carefully  traced,  114  of  the  babies 
were  living  with  their  mothers;  the  rest  had  been 
adopted  or  were  with  friends,  and  but  35  had  died, 
although  in  certain  cases  two  years  had  elapsed  since 
the  court  proceedings. 

It  was  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  investigators 
were  unable  to  trace  so  large  a  number  of  cases; 
doubtless  this  was  due  to  the  fact  that  in  many  in- 
stances several  months  had  elapsed  since  the  date  of 
the  trial  and  that  often  the  woman  had  purposely  left 
her  own  surroundings  and  had  deliberately  concealed 
her  new  address. 

The  163  cases  that  the  investigators  were  able  to 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   137 

trace  were  doubtless  the  most  intelligent  and  well 
placed  of  the  500.  The  cases  brought  into  court 
represented  the  women  whose  friends  had  the  in- 
telligence to  afford  them  at  least  this  measure  of  pro- 
tection, as  over  against  the  many  cases  of  poor  and 
ignorant  girls  who  did  not  even  know  of  the  existence 
of  such  a  court.  There  was  another  sifting  among 
the  court  cases  themselves.  The  fairly  comfortable 
status  of  those  located  was  shown  by  the  housing  rec- 
ord of  the  163  cases:  the  condition  of  the  neighbor- 
hood was  pronounced  good  in  75  cases,  fair  in  47  and 
bad  only  in  41. 

The  location  of  the  apartment  also  seemed  above 
the  average  standard,  as  in  only  16  per  cent  did  the 
family  Hve  in  basements  and  nearly  50  per  cent  of  the 
apartments  were  in  *'the  front."  The  matter  of  con- 
gestion and  of  the  presence  of  lodgers,  which  so 
often  leads  to  immorality,  was  also  fairly  good. 
The  average  number  of  rooms  per  apartment  was 
4.41  and  the  number  of  occupants  per  apartment 
was  5.6.  Only  22.7  per  cent  of  the  families  took 
lodgers. 

The  same  was  true  of  the  size  of  the  families;  a 
large  number  of  children  is  often  given  as  an  excuse 
when  a  mother  fails  to  guard  her  daughter  from  wrong- 
doing, but  this  study  did  not  seem  to  bear  out  such 
a  contention.    It  was  found  that  the  girl  involved  was 


138  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

an  only  child  in  39  instances  and  was  one  of  three  chil- 
dren or  less  in  79  cases. 

The  other  argument  of  a  broken  family  life  was  also 
not  clearly  demonstrated,  although  in  so  small  a 
number  of  cases  it  is  difficult  to  draw  conclusions. 
Both  parents  were  alive  in  94  cases,  in  nearly  a  fourth 
of  these,  however,  the  parents  were  still  in  the  old 
country;  both  parents  were  dead  in  twenty  cases,  the 
family  was  broken  by  the  death  of  one  parent  in  48 
cases  and  there  was  desertion  by  the  father  in  only 
one  case.  The  fair  average  was  continued  when  a 
study  was  made  of  the  work  and  wages  of  the 
girls'  fathers.  Seventeen  were  unskilled,  with  wages 
of  $50  and  more  a  month,  twenty  of  them  repre- 
sented skilled  labor  with  wages  at  $60  a  month  and 
more,  and  five  each  received  more  than  $100  a 
month. 

Of  the  140  mothers  of  the  girls  who  were  living,  113 
were  housewives,  presumably  giving  their  attention 
to  the  care  of  their  famihes;  only  17  of  the  mothers 
were  working  outside  of  their  homes,  3  of  these  worked 
as  laundresses,  4  as  charwomen,  and  2  at  farm  work. 
The  largest  amount  earned  by  these  working  mothers 
was  that  by  a  tailoress,  who  at  piece  work  made  from 
$1 .75  to  $2.25  a  day.  The  lowest  paid  were  a  clerk  and 
a  waitress,  each  of  whom  made  $5.00  per  week.  Only 
one  of  these  mothers  was  known  to  be  immoral.    The 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   139 

parents  of  the  girls  were  found  to  be  legally  married 
in  all  but  lo  instances. 

Occasionally  the  dreary  records,  in  which  the  fam- 
ilies involved  seemed  to  feel  only  chagrin  and  disgrace, 
are  illuminated  by  a  straightforward  parent  who  re- 
fuses to  be  stampeded,  and  ignoring  the  social  stigma, 
considers  first  the  moral  development  of  the  child. 

The  case  of  Stella  is  an  example  of  this.  She  was 
prevented  from  marrying  her  lover  because  the  par- 
ents on  both  sides  objected  to  differences  of  religion, 
but  her  mother  is  sending  her  to  a  business  college 
that  she  may  be  able  to  earn  enough  money  to  pay 
board  for  the  baby  and  herself.  In  the  meantime, 
Stella  takes  care  of  the  bafey  by  night  and  her  mother 
takes  care  of  it  by  day.  The  baby  is  a  charming  child, 
much  beloved  by  all  the  family,  and  evidently  the  dis- 
ciphne  and  responsibility  are  working  wonders  for 
Stella. 

Another  mother  exacts  from  her  daughter  seven 
dollars  each  week  as  board  for  the  baby  and  herself, 
although  Elizabeth  earns  only  eight  dollars  a  week 
in  a  cigar  factory  and  is  expected  to  buy  clothing  for 
two  out  of  her  remaining  dollar.  She  says  it  is  "hard 
going,"  but  evidently  has  no  notion  of  rebelling  against 
her  mother's  authority.  Her  baby  was  born  in  a  free 
ward  of  a  hospital  and  she  has  never  had  any  money 
from  its  father. 


I40  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

One  stem  parent  insisted  that  his  boy,  who  was 
himself  unable  to  meet  the  payment  ordered  by  the 
court,  serve  two  months  in  jail,  although  at  the  end 
of  that  time  the  father  arranged  to  make  the  pay- 
ments. The  parents  of  the  young  man,  who  are  good 
people,  stated  that  their  one  objection  to  the  marriage 
was  the  difference  in  reHgion  and  also  the  fact  that 
such  a  girl  could  not  make  a  "worthy  wife."  The 
young  man  himself  had  procured  a  license  and  had 
been  eager  for  the  marriage.  The  investigator  could 
not  find  the  girl  or  the  child,  although  the  girl  had 
been  working  for  several  months  in  a  cheap  depart- 
ment store  as  a  married  woman.  Her  fellow  clerks 
said  she  had  been  very  unhappy  and  there  was  a  rumor 
among  them  that  she  had  taken  poison  and  died  a  few 
months  previously.  This  report  could  not  be  sub- 
stantiated, neither  could  the  girl  be  found. 

Because  of  the  recent  spirited  discussion  in  Illinois 
concerning  the  minimum  wage  law  and  the  wide- 
spread belief  that  inadequate  wages  are  in  many  in- 
stances indirectly  responsible  for  a  girl's  downfall,  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  was  much  interested 
in  the  court  records  in  regard  to  wages  in  the  419  com- 
pleted cases,  as  well  as  in  the  more  detailed  study  made 
concerning  the  wages  of  the  163  girls  who  were  found 
by  the  investigators.  From  the  court  records  of  the 
occupations  of  419  of  the  girls,  32%  were  house- 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   141 

workers;  19%  were  factory  workers;  10.8%  were 
hotel  workers;  10%  were  in  the  sewing  trades;  6% 
were  laundresses,  others  were  in  scattering  occupa- 
tions. There  were  9  girls  not  working  and  i  school 
girl. 

The  court  records  reported  the  wages  on  only  216 
cases.  Of  these  less  than  3%  received  over  $1 2  a  week ; 
77%  received  less  than  $9  a  week.  The  average  wage 
among  these  girls  was  approximately  $6.75  a  week. 
One  girl  received  $2;  4  received  between  $2  and  $3 
and  12  received  between  $4  and  $5  a  week.  The  court 
records  in  172  cases  give  the  ages  at  which  the  girl 
started  to  work.  Of  this  number  there  were  44  of  the 
girls  at  work  by  the  time  they  were  13  years  old  and 
141  at  the  age  of  16  years,  or  81%  of  the  total.  Out 
of  the  entire  number,  71  girls  were  ilUterate. 

In  the  163  cases  more  carefully  investigated,  two  of 
the  girls  were  receiving  less  than  $3  a  week;  the  largest 
number  were  receiving  between  $6  and  $7  a  week  and 
but  one  was  receiving  more  than  $12.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  obtain  a  report  upon  8,  but  the  approximate 
average  wage  in  the  remaining  132  cases  was  $7.70, 
slightly  higher  than  the  average  wage  of  the  court 
records,  which  was  $6.75  a  week  and  higher  than  the 
average  wage  given  by  the  U.  S.  Government  Report 
on  the  Working  Girls  in  Chicago,  which  is  a  little 
more  than  $6.00  a  week. 


142  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Comparing  the  ages  of  the  giris  with  the  ages  of  the 
men  involved,  we  find  that  42%  of  the  girls  were 
under  21  years  as  against  12%  of  the  men;  and  87% 
of  the  girls  were  under  25  years,  as  against  50%  of 
the  men. 

In  regard  to  the  nativity  and  parentage  of  the  girls 
in  the  419  cases,  it  was  found  that  51  were  born  in 
the  United  States  of  American  parents;  186  were  born 
in  the  United  States  of  foreign  parents,  among  whom 
German  parents  take  the  lead.  Of  the  girls  bom 
abroad,  there  are  19  nationahties  with  Germany  again 
in  the  lead;  91%  of  the  girls  were  unmarried.  It  was 
found  that  47%  were  Uving  at  the  home  of  one  or  both 
parents,  21%  with  friends  or  relatives  and  32%  were 
boarding  or  alone. 

An  effort  was  made  in  connection  with  the  family 
status  to  find  whether  "any  other  member  of  the 
family  had  ever  been  in  the  same  trouble,"  with  an 
affirmative  reply  in  7%  of  the  cases,  but  of  course  there 
was  no  way  of  knowing  how  many  of  the  others  were 
hiding  a  family  skeleton. 

It  was  rather  difficult  to  discover  how  far  the  girls 
had  been  ostracized  by  their  famihes  and  thrown  out 
from  their  circle  of  friends  by  their  "trouble."  One 
hundred  and  ten  insisted  that  they  had  not  suffered 
socially,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  being  ostracized  by 
their  former  friends.     Some  of  the  others  were  be- 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   143 

wildered  by  the  question,  but  claimed  that  the  diffi- 
culty had  ''blown  over"  and  that  they  were  now  rein- 
stated. 

Some  of  the  most  pathetic  cases  were  those  of  girls 
who  Uved  at  home.  One  young  girl,  a  Russian  Jewess, 
less  than  i6  years  old  when  her  baby  was  bom,  was 
trying  to  care  for  a  sick  father,  as  well  as  to  aid  in  his 
support.  The  father  of  her  child  was  a  friend  of  her 
brother  and  the  price  of  his  lodging  helped  pay  the 
rent.  The  girl's  mother  was  dead  and  her  two  sisters 
were  married,  leaving  her  the  only  woman  in  the  house. 
She  had  had  no  instruction  or  guidance  and  believed 
what  the  boy  told  her.  The  boy  was  first  arrested  on 
the  charge  of  rape,  but  disappeared  before  the  baby 
was  born.  The  married  brothers  and  sisters  who 
helped  with  the  support  of  the  father  would  do  nothing 
for  the  baby,  and  it  was  given  out  for  adoption.  The 
girl  is  heartbroken  over  her  experience  and  longs  con- 
stantly for  her  baby.  Her  sick  father,  although  abso- 
lutely dependent  upon  her  for  his  care,  has  never  for- 
given her  for  the  disgrace.  Although  she  seems  to 
have  no  affection  for  the  father  of  her  child,  she  longs 
for  his  return  in  the  hope  that  he  will  marry  her  and 
that,  free  from  family  opprobrium,  she  may  at  least 
have  her  baby  with  her. 

In  reply  to  the  question  on  recreational  possibilities 
it  was  discovered  that  64%  of  the  girls  had  some  form 


144  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

of  amusement;  that  23%  had  little  or  no  amusement 
and  that  13%  said  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  leave 
home.  Naturally  the  number  of  those  who  preferred 
dances  to  any  other  form  of  amusement,  led  the  list. 

It  is  perhaps  a  striking  fact  that  among  the  163 
girls  none  so  far  as  could  be  ascertained,  were  in  the 
habit  of  finding  recreation  at  the  social  centres  in  the 
public  schools,  the  small  parks,  the  settlements,  or 
the  girls'  clubs.  It  clearly  demonstrates  that  in  spite 
of  much  effort  to  supply  proper  recreation  to  working 
girls,  they  are  still  largely  dependent  upon  the  com- 
mercial amusements  which  are  run  solely  for  profit  in 
the  interest  of  the  proprietor.  It  is  another  argument, 
if  one  were  needed,  for  the  proper  regulation  and  super- 
vision of  all  pubHc  places  of  amusement. 

Many  of  the  defendants  in  these  cases  were  evi- 
dently well-meaning  young  men  who  doubtless  would 
have  behaved  honorably  and  would  have  willingly  as- 
sumed the  obligations  of  family  hfe  had  they  lived  in 
smaller  communities  where  social  standards  were  well- 
estabhshed  and  guarded  by  an  operative  pubhc  opin- 
ion. Apparently,  however,  they  had  no  place  of  meet- 
ing young  girls,  save  in  saloon  dance  halls,  and  often 
under  the  influence  of  liquor  they  easily  accepted  the 
evil  standards  of  other  men  in  those  places.  One  such 
young  man,  aged  18  years,  married  to  a  young  girl  by 
the  judge  in  the  court  room,  was  apparently  chagrined 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   145 

and  remorseful  for  his  own  part  in  the  affair.  He 
is  very  fond  of  the  child,  and  his  wife  is  an  attractive 
woman  and  an  extremely  good  housekeeper.  Beyond 
the  fact  that  there  is  a  quarrel  every  week  when  he 
demands  one  dollar  from  his  wage  envelope  for  his  own 
spending  money,  their  married  life  is  not  unlike  that 
of  thousands  of  young  people  who  are  ambitious  to 
save  and  ''give  their  children  a  chance."  They  are 
certainly  far  from  the  saloon  dance  hall  standard. 

It  was  possible  to  ascertain  the  place  in  which  a  girl 
first  met  the  father  of  her  child  from  the  court  records, 
and  it  is  perhaps  characteristic  of  the  lack  of  social 
organizations  which  our  city  presents  that  the  largest 
number  of  girls,  gave  the  reply,  "Casual  acquaint- 
ance" and  could  not  remember  where  the  first  meeting 
took  place.  In  almost  equal  percentages  was  given 
"boarding  place,"  "home,"  "dance  hall,"  "place  of 
employment."  Next  came  "picnics,"  and  "amuse- 
ment parks."  The  home  and  boarding  house  in  their 
failure  to  make  provision  for  a  proper  place  in  which 
young  people  may  meet  each  other  are  but  an  epitome 
of  the  city  itself  and  practically  all  of  the  young  people, 
wherever  they  first  met,  seemed  to  have  carried  on 
much  of  their  courtship  on  the  city  streets. 

In  reply  to  the  question,  "Did  you  know  the  con- 
sequences of  your  act?"  and  "Were  you  ever  taught 
the  facts  of  sex  life?  "  put  to  163  of  the  girls,  the  replies 


146  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

were  somewhat  mystifying.  More  than  one-half  of 
the  girls  openly  admitted  that  they  did  know,  either 
through  questions  they  had  put  to  their  mothers  or 
to  elder  women,  and  one-fourth  insisted  that  they  had 
never  been  taught,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  any 
of  the  facts  of  sex.  Among  the  latter  were  several 
sub-normal  girls. 

In  only  three  of  the  cases  was  the  woman  married 
at  the  time  her  case  was  brought  into  court,  but  since 
the  complaints  were  made  89  women  have  been  mar- 
ried, all  but  four  to  the  men  against  whom  they  made 
the  complaint.  Of  this  number  69  are  living  with  their 
husbands,  60  of  whom  say  that  they  are  very  well 
treated.  Of  the  20  women  who  do  not  live  with  their 
husbands,  half  of  them  alleged  ill-treatment;  the  other 
half  separated  from  their  husbands  under  the  general 
claim  of  ^'incompatibility"  which  is  perhaps  a  small 
number  considering  the  circumstances  under  which 
the  marriages  took  place. 

The  husbands  as  a  whole  are  fairly  prosperous,  rep- 
resenting 35  different  occupations,  teamsters,  con- 
ductors, clerks;  the  largest  number  in  one  occupation 
are  laborers. 

Of  the  94  women  who  had  not  married  or  were  not 
Kving  with  their  husbands,  41  were  living  at  home, 
12  were  domestics,  living  at  their  place  of  employ- 
ment, 12  others  lived  with  relatives,  8  were  boarding, 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   147 

14  reported  themselves  as  living  alone,  3  were  in  in- 
stitutions, and  only  in  4  cases  was  it  impossible  to 
obtain  a  definite  report.  It  would  seem  on  the  whole 
that  in  spite  of  this  disastrous  experience  that  the 
163  women  had  been  able  to  reinstate  themselves  and 
had  attained  an  average  social  standing. 

No  court  record  is  made  of  a  bastardy  case  until 
the  child  is  born,  even  then  if  it  is  stillborn  the  woman 
has  no  case.  Many  of  the  girls  who  file  complaints 
never  return  again  and  the  court  has  no  way  of  know- 
ing whether  a  Hving  child  has  been  bom.  The  failure 
to  reappear  in  court  is  due  to  many  causes.  In  the 
cases  investigated  in  which  suit  was  withdrawn  the 
answer  was  varied:  ''Thought  I  could  do  no  better 
in  court,"  ''Didn't  want  Jim  to  go  to  jail,"  "Did  not 
want  to  testify,"  "  Did  not  want  to  bother." 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  in  many  cases 
when  the  girl  has  filed  a  suit  in  court  and  has  been 
told  to  go  home  to  await  the  birth  of  her  child,  she 
does  not  understand  her  directions.  This  is  due  some- 
times to  the  fact  that,  bewildered  and  mortified,  she 
does  not  hear  what  is  said  to  her  and  is  only  anxious 
to  get  away  from  the  court  room;  at  other  times  she 
does  not  understand  the  technical  language  used  by 
the  court.  Often  she  is  approached  out  of  court  and 
persuaded  to  drop  the  suit  by  the  attorney  and  friends 
of  the  man  against  whom  she  has  brought  the  charge. 


148  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

For  many  months  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion detailed  one  of  its  officers,  who  is  a  trained  nurse, 
to  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  that  she  might 
befriend  and  advise  the  girls  who  made  the  complaints, 
and  that  she  might  explain  to  them  their  rights  in  the 
case  before  they  left  the  building.  She  also  advised 
them  many  times  in  regard  to  prenatal  care  and  the 
free  hospital  service  which  they  might  later  secure. 
This  oflBicer  has  lately  been  taken  over  by  the  State's 
Attorney's  oflBce  as  an  official  investigator  and  her 
salary  is  paid  from  the  public  funds. 

When  the  girl's  charge  is  sustained  and  the  man  is 
found  guilty,  but  is  too  poor  to  pay  the  sum  required 
by  the  court,  he  is  then  sent  to  jail  to  serve  out  a  sen- 
tence. In  the  jail  there  is  naturally  no  opportunity 
for  him  to  earn  anything,  for  as  has  been  well  said, 
"Jails  are  places  where  the  idle  are  encouraged  in 
their  idleness  and  where  the  industrious  are  deprived 
of  occupation."  The  man  serves  his  sentence  among 
the  other  occupants  of  the  jail,  many  of  whom  are 
criminals,  and  at  the  end  of  his  term  he  emerges,  not 
so  strong  in  health  or  morals  as  when  he  went  in.  His 
punishment  has  been  of  no  benefit  whatever  to  the 
girl  and  has  only  made  him  feel  bitterly  toward  her, 
in  most  cases  making  a  future  marriage  between  them 
quite  out  of  the  question. 

In  certain  cases,  however,  the  man  after  a  few 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   149 

weeks — or  even  a  longer  time— spent  in  jail  will  con- 
sent to  marry  the  girl  and  strange  as  it  may  seem  these 
marriages  are  apparently  successful.  Of  one  such 
marriage,  a  relative  reported  to  the  investigator  that 
at  first  they  were  not  happy  but  are  now  getting 
along  nicely,  and  that  "the  husband  likes  the  baby 
awfully  well/'  In  one  of  the  cases  studied,  the  con- 
victed man  who  remained  in  jail  six  months  was  a 
married  man  and  his  detention  there  not  only  failed 
to  provide  for  Dora,  but  his  own  family  were  also 
deprived  of  his  earnings.  The  case  was  further  com- 
plicated because  Dora  was  irresponsible  and  doubt- 
less will  repeat  the  experience  although  she  is  devoted 
to  her  child  and  seems  able  to  take  care  of  it  fairly  well, 
earning  a  living  for  both  by  scrubbing. 

In  another  case  in  which  the  man  was  sent  to  jail 
for  six  months  in  default  of  payment,  Maria  borrowed 
$150  from  her  parents  at  the  time  the  baby  was  born. 
With  this  she  secured  proper  care  for  herself  and  child, 
and  paid  the  money  back  in  installments.  She  lived 
with  her  brother's  family,  earning  $10.50  a  week.  Her 
baby,  in  spite  of  her  excellent  care,  died  a  year  ago. 
She  has  since  married  a  widower  with  seven  children 
and  is  apparently  very  happy.  She  presents  an  un- 
usual record  of  self-reliance,  but  she  had  the  advantage 
of  being  28  years  of  age  and  had  learned  confidence  in 
her  own  earning  capacity. 


150  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

The  court  records  give  some  interesting  data  in  re- 
gard to  the  men  involved  in  each  case. 

In  nationality  the  court  records  of  the  419  cases 
show  that  the  native  Americans  supply  the  largest 
number,  with  50  white  and  28  colored  men,  Austria- 
Poland  comes  next  with  45,  followed  by  Russia  with 
38.  Germany  and  Austria  lead  in  the  list  of  28  other 
nationaUties. 

The  investigation  in  163  cases  showed  the  same  be- 
wildering social  standards  among  the  men  as  that 
among  the  girls.  One  man  honorably  engaged  to 
marry  a  girl  with  no  objections  on  the  part  of  either 
family,  induced  her  to  elope  with  him  a  few  weeks 
before  the  wedding.  She  romantically  insisted  on 
having  the  elopement  take  place  at  night  and  when 
he  told  her  it  was  too  late  to  take  the  boat  to  Michigan 
as  they  had  planned,  she  went  with  him  to  a  wine 
room  and  remembered  nothing  further  until  she  awoke 
the  next  morning  to  find  herself  alone  in  a  disreputable 
hotel. 

One  of  the  older  men  seduced  a  southern  girl  who 
had  come  to  Chicago  on  an  excursion.  The  court  or- 
dered him  to  pay  $550;  the  girl  has  remained  in  the 
north,  not  daring  to  go  home  nor  to  let  her  people 
know  of  her  disgrace.  She  has  taken  good  care  of  her 
baby  and  is  now  engaged  to  marry  another  man. 

A  young  Italian  man  has  done  everything  possible 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   15I 

to  make  restitution  to  the  girl  he  wronged.  As  the 
girl's  own  parents  are  in  Italy  she  lives  with  her  hus- 
band's people  during  his  absence  from  the  city  and 
he  does  all  that  he  can  to  make  her  life  conform  to  the 
most  rigid  of  ItaHan  conventions. 

Out  of  163  cases,  the  men  involved  in  126  of  them 
were  readily  located  and  only  in  29  cases  had  the 
man  absolutely  disappeared;  24  cases  were  satisfac- 
torily settled  out  of  court.  Out  of  the  same  number  of 
cases,  63  never  came  to  trial  and  no  order  for  payments 
was  entered.  Four  cases  were  dismissed,  8  were  found 
not  guilty,  and  40  were  married  in  court.  Of  the  re- 
mainder for  whom  a  verdict  was  obtained,  8  spent  six 
months  in  jail  and  the  remainder  were  ordered  to  pay 
specified  sums. 

Although  the  IHinois  law  provides  that  if  a  charge  of 
bastardy  is  proven,  the  man  can  be  made  to  pay  $100 
for  the  first  year  of  the  child's  Hfe,  and  $50  a  year  for 
each  succeeding  nine  years,  amounting  to  $550  in  all, 
yet  out  of  the  163  cases  studied,  the  maximum  pay- 
ment of  $550  was  ordered  in  only  17  cases,  and  in  but 
12  cases  was  it  lived  up  to.  In  four  others  the  men 
had  eluded  payment,  and  concerning  one  case  there 
was  no  report. 

In  reply  to  the  question  "Did  you  think  your  trial 
a  fair  one?"  the  majority  of  the  answers  were  in  the 
affirmative,  although  in  20  cases  it  was  impossible  to 


152  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

obtain  a  report.  The  lawyers'  fees  had  varied  from 
$5  to  $125,  the  largest  number  of  cKents  having  paid 
$25  and  6  of  them  having  paid  nothing  at  all. 

A  former  judge  of  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations 
recommends  that  bastardy,  which  is  now  only  a  civil 
action,  be  made  a  misdemeanor  and  extraditable,  and 
that  the  court  shall  have  the  power  to  direct  the  de- 
fendant, if  found  guilty,  to  pay  a  certain  sum  for  a 
period  not  exceeding  i8  years,  to  the  mother  of  the 
child,  or  to  a  guardian  appointed  by  the  court  for  the 
support  and  education  of  the  child;  the  defendant  to 
give  a  bond  to  this  effect  and  the  bond  to  be  renewed 
every  two  years. 

He  also  recommends  that  the  mother  shall  not  have 
the  power  to  settle  unless  with  the  consent  of  the  court, 
because  the  money  sometimes  paid  by  the  defendant 
is  in  one  sum,  and  as  the  mother  often  expends  it  un- 
wisely the  child  receives  little  good  from  it. 

It  would  be  a  most  excellent  plan  if  both  the  plaintiff 
and  the  defendant  in  a  bastardy  case  could  be  put  on 
probation  to  the  court — not  only  that  the  mother  and 
father  could  be  kept  under  some  supervision  but  that 
the  interests  of  the  child  might  be  watched  and  safe- 
guarded. 

After  a  careful  study  of  the  bastardy  cases  brought 
into  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  reach  the  old-fashioned  conclusion  that  the 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   1 53 

man  is  always  the  aggressor  and  the  villain.  In  sev- 
eral of  these  cases  the  man  was  very  young  and  be- 
came involved  with  a  girl  who  was  already  the  mother 
of  illegitimate  children,  or  with  a  girl  who  showed 
every  symptom  of  sub-normality  and  degeneracy. 

The  judge  of  the  Court  of  Domestic  Relations  has 
wisely  concluded  that  nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  send- 
ing a  decent  boy  who  has  become  involved  with  a  dis- 
reputable girl,  to  jail  for  six  months.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  dislike  to  such  procedure  is  one  evidence  of 
the  tendency  to  look  at  the  entire  question  of  *' im- 
morality"  from  the  point  of  view  of  safeguarding  boys 
as  well  as  girls.  As  yet  comparatively  little  has  been 
done  for  the  boy  who  comes  as  a  stranger  to  the  city, 
although  the  Travelers'  Aid  attempts  to  meet  country 
girls  at  the  station  and  further  efforts  are  made  to  sup- 
ply the  working  girls  with  clubs  and  boarding  places; 
there  is  also  coming  to  be  a  public  concern  for  her 
wages  and  standards  of  living.  We  have  yet  to  learn 
that  an  unformed  boy  is  also  in  need  of  safeguards 
and  may  be  totally  unable  to  protect  himself  from  the 
evils  of  the  city.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  protect  a 
young  boy  by  law  from  the  machinations  of  profes- 
sional prostitutes.  Such  cases  as  come  into  the  Court 
of  Domestic  Relations  will  have  to  be  cared  for 
through  the  safeguards  which  civic  and  philanthropic 
agencies  can  provide;  or  better  still,  "moral  equiv- 


154  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

alents"  may  be  discovered  as  substitutes  for  the 
barbaric  and  morbid  expression  of  their  energies  to 
which  the  city  so  often  lures  young  men. 

As  our  courts  are  becoming  specialized  and  social- 
ized, the  notion  of  justice  is  less  abstract  and  more 
carefully  adapted  to  the  individual.  The  treatment 
of  the  juvenile  offender  is  slowly  being  determined 
by  the  understanding  of  the  boy  and  girl  quite  as  the 
advanced  educator  founds  his  educational  system 
upon  a  study  of  the  children  under  his  care. 

In  419  cases  studied,  more  than  three-fourths  of  the 
girls  and  half  of  the  men  were  under  25  years  of  age — 
the  very  period  of  life  when  human  energy  and  desires, 
even  lust  itself,  may  most  easily  be  turned  either  into 
good  or  evil  expression. 

During  our  years  of  experience  in  the  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association,  it  became  increasingly  evident 
that  there  was  a  certain  steady,  although  perhaps  un- 
conscious discrimination  against  the  women  who  are 
daily  brought  into  the  court;  this  in  spite  of  the  senti- 
mentality which  often  makes  it  impossible  to  convict 
women  of  murder  or  of  equally  serious  crimes.  Our 
law  courts  have  long  been  regarded  as  places  where 
justice  is  dealt  out  by  men  to  men  only,  where  men  are 
arrested  by  policemen,  interrogated  by  men  captains 
or  sergeants,  guarded  in  prison  by  men  jailers,  brought 
into  court  by  men  bailiffs,  tried  by  juries  of  men,  sen- 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   1 55 

tenced  by  men  judges,  paroled  to  men  probation  offi- 
cers and  cared  for  by  men  in  the  institution  to  which 
they  are  committed. 

We  have  apparently  forgotten  the  thousands  of  un- 
fortunate women  who  are  brought  into  our  courts,  for 
whose  comfort  and  special  needs  no  provision  is  made. 
According  to  the  report  of  the  chief  matron  of  the 
Police  Department  there  were  12,641  women  arrested 
in  Chicago  in  191 2;  1,851  of  them  were  young  girls. 
In  addition  2,318  women  were  arrested  only  to  be 
held  as  witnesses  and  yet,  in  spite  of  these  numbers 
and  their  great  need  for  special  care,  our  legal  ma- 
chinery is  still  all  in  the  hands  of  men.  Fortunately 
many  eminent  lawyers  and  jurists  are  beginning  to 
express  the  need  of  woman's  sympathy  in  dealing  with 
other  women. 

From  the  time  of  the  arrest  of  a  woman  to  the  final 
disposition  of  her  case  she  is  handicapped  by  being  in 
the  charge  of  men  and  surrounded  by  men,  who  nat- 
urally cannot  be  expected  to  be  as  sympathetic  and 
understanding  as  one  of  her  own  sex.  In  the  police 
station  she  is  at  a  disadvantage,  for  such  places  of  de- 
tention in  most  of  our  large  cities  as  in  Chicago  are 
dark  and  unsanitary.  The  women  are  herded  to- 
gether, the  innocent  with  the  guilty,  the  clean  with  the 
unclean,  the  young  girl  with  the  prostitute.  The 
sleeping  accommodations  are  vile;  there  are  cots  for 


156  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

the  women,  but  the  bedding  is  not  often  changed  and 
is  filled  with  vermin.  There  are  few  facilities  for 
washing. 

When  the  woman  appears  for  her  preliminary  hear- 
ing, she  is  tousled  and  untidy  as  the  result  of  having 
been  without  proper  toilet  accommodations,  and  is 
therefore  apt  to  create  an  unfavorable  impression.  In 
all  police  stations  separate  rooms  or  cells  should  be 
provided,  with  plenty  of  light  and  air  and  with  sleep- 
ing and  toilet  acconmiodations  for  the  women. 

Young  girls  are  frequently  arrested  by  policemen, 
sometimes  without  even  a  warrant,  as  the  law  gives 
the  policeman  this  power  if  he  has  reasonable  grounds 
for  beheving  that  the  person  arrested  has  committed  a 
crime.  I  recall  the  case  of  two  young  girls  who  had 
come  from  the  country  to  find  work  in  Chicago  and 
who  were  living  with  their  sister.  They  were  un- 
able to  secure  work  and,  meeting  an  acquaintance 
upon  the  street  one  night,  they  went  with  him  to  a 
restaurant  for  dinner.  Returning  with  them  he  tried 
to  enter  their  room  and  they  were  obliged  to  forcibly 
bar  the  door  against  him.  In  revenge  he  told  a  police- 
man that  they  were  disreputable  characters.  They 
were  arrested  in  their  room  at  four  o'clock  the  same 
morning  by  the  policeman,  who  broke  down  the  door 
as  they  were  afraid  to  open  it;  they  were  taken  to  the 
police  station  where  they  were  put  into  a  cell  with  a 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   157 

prostitute.  Arrests  of  young  women  should  be  made, 
when  possible,  by  women  police  and  women  prisoners 
placed  under  the  supervision  of  a  poHce  matron. 
When  the  time  comes  for  their  trial,  they  should  be 
accompanied  to  the  court  room  by  women  who  can 
explain  the  legal  procedure  to  them  and  stand  beside 
them  when  they  are  subjected  to  the  harassing  ques- 
tions which  the  attorneys  so  often  put  to  them. 

Chicago  is  making  a  great  effort  to  reclaim  and  en- 
courage its  unfortunate  women.  The  old  police  courts 
have  been  done  away  with  and  in  their  places  Munic- 
ipal Courts,  with  judges  elected  by  the  people,  have 
been  substituted.  Under  the  able  leadership  of  the 
present  Chief  Justice  in  Chicago,  these  courts  have 
been  carefully  specialized. 

The  judge  at  the  head  of  each  special  court  is  thus 
given  an  opportunity  to  make  a  study  of  the  one  class 
of  crime  for  which  men  and  women  are  brought  into 
his  court,  and  to  collect  material  which  may  suggest 
methods  of  reformation  and  prevention. 

In  the  Morales  Court  of  Chicago  an  effort  is  made 
to  find  out  the  reason  for  the  downfall  of  the  women 
brought  there  and,  if  possible,  through  advice,  en- 
couragement and  employment,  to  give  them  another 
chance  to  lead  a  decent  life.  In  addition  to  the  adult 
probation  officer,  there  is  a  woman  physician  con- 
nected with  the  court.    The  Juvenile  Protective  Asso- 


158  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

ciation  maintains  a  woman  ofl&cer  in  the  criminal  court 
to  advise  and  assist  the  women  who  are  brought  there 
as  witnesses  or  as  prisoners.  The  officer  is  allowed  to 
accompany  the  women  when  they  are  brought  before 
the  Grand  Jury. 

In  all  cases  pertaining  to  women  and  children, 
women  should  sit  as  jurors,  as  they  do  in  Norway  and 
Sweden  and  if  the  prisoners  are  found  guilty  and  sen- 
tenced to  a  reformatory,  they  should  certainly  be 
conducted  there  by  women. 

It  is  hoped  that  in  time  there  will  be  an  opportunity 
in  these  reformatory  institutions  for  some  kind  of  voca- 
tional training  for  the  women,  so  that  when  they  are 
released  they  will  find  it  much  easier  to  obtain  a  situa- 
tion. The  majority  of  girls  at  present  find  it  almost 
impossible  to  secure  work  after  leaving  a  reformatory 
and  many  of  them  drift  back  into  the  old  life. 

Since  we  have  found  that  such  a  large  percentage 
of  the  women  in  our  reformatory  institutions  are 
mentally  deficient,  it  makes  us  realize  more  and  more 
that  these  women  should  be  protected  from  the  fate 
which  now  so  often  awaits  them. 

In  a  recent  inquiry  made  by  the  Russell  Sage 
Foundation  of  seven  correctional  institutions  in  the 
United  States,  it  was  found  that  the  percentage  of 
mental  deficiency  among  women  is  far  greater  than 
among  men.    Bedford  Reformatory  for  Women  gives 


LEGAL  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  THE  DEPENDENT   1 59 

the  estimate  of  37%  of  the  inmates  as  mentally  defi- 
cient. The  Industrial  School  for  Girls  at  Lancaster, 
Mass.,  gives  50%,  and  the  Maryland  Industrial  School 
for  Girls  at  Baltimore  puts  it  as  high  as  60%,  while 
three  reformatories  for  men  and  boys  in  New  York, 
New  Jersey  and  IlHnois  give  respectively  37%,  33% 
and  20%;  an  average  of  30%  for  the  three  men  and 
boys'  reformatories  against  49%  for  the  three  re- 
formatories for  women  and  girls. 

If  women  commit  crimes  because  of  mental  defi- 
ciency, it  would  seem  most  necessary  to  have  arrested 
women  examined  by  a  psychopathic  expert  and  com- 
mitted, not  to  prisons  but  to  such  reformatories  as 
Bedford.  Scientific  treatment  and  humane  care  have 
made  it  one  of  the  few  hopeful  spots  in  our  wretched 
prison  system. 

Two  hnes  of  progress  are  encouraging;  first,  the 
appointment  of  women  officials  in  various  capacities 
attached  to  the  courts  in  which  they  are  able  to  be  of 
service  to  women  prisoners;  second,  the  estabhshment 
of  psychopathic  clinics  for  the  study  of  criminal 
women  which  will  in  the  end  affect  them  and  their 
dependent  children. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION 

A  GREAT  many  cases  reported  to  the  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association  have  been  those  involving  the 
children  of  immigrant  parents  and  the  most  serious 
of  the  community  problems  facing  our  officers  have 
tbeen  found  in  immigrant  colonies.  In  one  of  the 
early  years,  out  of  2,593  complaints  of  children  going 
wrong,  2,329  were  the  children  of  immigrants. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  juvenile  delinquency 
increases  with  centralization  of  population,  and  the 
resulting  injurious  eiBFect  of  city  life.  Prof.  Commons 
asserts  that  the  tendency  to  criminality  on  the  part  of 
the  children  of  the  foreign  born  is  twice  as  great  as 
that  among  the  children  of  native  parents,  while 
among  adults  the  reverse  is  true,  crime  among  the 
native  born  being  twice  as  great  as  among  the  foreign 
born.  The  reports  of  juvenile  asylums  all  over  the 
United  States  show  that  over  50%  of  the  inmates  come 
from  parents  of  foreign  birth,  most  of  whom  cannot 
speak  English. 

This  tendency  to  crime  is  almost  wholly  the  result 
160 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      l6l 

of  city  life,  for  as  soon  as  the  immigrant  reaches 
America,  in  order  to  guard  his  resources,  and  perhaps 
pooling  them  with  those  of  another  family,  he  is 
forced  to  rent  unsanitary  quarters,  that  have  been  dis- 
carded by  other  immigrants  who  have  been  able  to 
climb  a  rung  higher  in  the  social  ladder.  So  his 
children  live  in  the  worst  tenements,  in  attics  or  cellars, 
in  rooms  badly  hghted,  where  brokendown  stairways, 
rotten  woodwork,  defective  plumbing,  and  over- 
flowing garbage  boxes  all  teach  a  disregard  for  laws 
that  are  not  enforced.  The  children  are  underfed 
and  poorly  nourished,  therefore  anaemic.  The  father, 
perhaps,  is  an  unskilled  laborer,  and  takes  what 
work  he  can  get,  often  paying  the  greater  part  of 
his  first  month's  salary  to  the  employment  bureau 
that  has  found  him  his  position.  Consequently  the 
family  is  under  a  pecuniary  pressure  most  of  the  time. 
When  the  father  is  ill  or  out  of  work,  the  mother  takes 
in  washing,  goes  out  to  scrub  by  day  or  to  clean  office 
buildings  at  night.  In  both  cases  the  parents  come 
home,  tired  from  their  unaccustomed  work  in  close 
places,  confused  by  their  new  experiences  and  indif- 
ferent to  the  children  who  are  in  the  streets  finding 
amusements  of  a  sort  which  tend  to  become  quickly 
demoraHzing. 

Then  the  children  easily  acquire  the  language  of 
the  country,  and  despise  their  parents  because  they 


l62  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

are  unable  to  master  it.  They  are  often  ashamed  of 
the  parents  and  unwilling  to  be  seen  with  them,  and 
on  the  other  hand  the  parents  do  not  know  what  their 
children  are  doing,  or  why  they  are  in  trouble.  I  re- 
member a  Bohemian  family  in  which  neither  parent 
spoke  English  and  although  they  had  been  here  for 
1 6  years,  the  mother  still  wore  the  peasant  costimie. 
Their  boy  of  nine  was  brought  into  the  Juvenile 
Court,  charged  with  being  unmanageable  and  dis- 
respectful to  his  parents;  since  then,  he  has  been 
brought  in  many  times  on  more  serious  charges. 
In  another  Bohemian  family,  who  did  not  speak  Eng- 
lish although  they  had  been  in  this  country  for  thirty 
years,  the  boy  was  always  disrespectful  and  insulting 
to  his  parents;  after  being  brought  several  times  into 
court,  he  ran  away  and  joined  the  navy.  The  son  of 
a  Russian  family  of  hardworking,  respectable  people, 
was  first  brought  into  court  for  stealing  $i.oo  from 
his  father;  the  parents  did  not  understand  him,  and 
continually  taunted  him  with  being  arrested. 

The  public  schools  further  separate  the  children 
from  the  parents  because  they  teach  subjects  imknown 
to  the  parents  and  the  children,  in  consequence,  feel 
superior  and  try  to  assume  control.  When  this  is 
resented  by  the  parents,  all  discipline  and  respect 
are  at  an  end;  the  child  easily  becomes  a  truant, 
possibly  because  he  is  idle,  possibly  because  he  dis- 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 63 

likes  school,  the  path  from  truancy  to  delinquency 
is  a  short  one  and  the  child  soon  lands  in  the  Juve- 
nile Court.  The  records  of  this  court  show  that  the 
majority  of  the  children  brought  into  court  are  the 
children  of  foreigners,  that  between  the  ages  of  ii  and 
12  the  most  truants  are  produced,  that  the  largest 
number  of  delinquents  are  brought  in  between  the 
ages  of  15  and  i6,  that  the  majority  of  boys  are 
brought  in  for  larceny  and  the  majority  of  girls  for 
incorrigibility,  which  usually  means  immorality,  but 
is  not  always  recorded  as  such  by  the  officers. 

The  delinquent  children  of  immigrants  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes,  the  children  who  go  wrong 
in  order  to  get  a  desired  result,  and  the  children  who 
go  wrong  because  of  the  desire  for  excitement.  Under 
the  first  class,  I  would  put  the  boy  who  steals  iron  or 
brass  from  the  cars  standing  on  the  railroad  tracks 
and  sells  his  booty  to  the  junk  dealer  in  order  to  get 
money  for  some  amusement,  and  the  girl  who  steals 
from  the  department  store  in  order  that  she  may 
dress  well  enough  to  attract  the  young  boys  of  her 
acquaintance,  because,  as  a  young  girl  told  me  the 
other  day,  the  boys  care  only  for  those  who  are  "dressy 
enough  to  be  seen." 

I  recall  a  young  Bohemian  girl  who  stole  $7.00 
worth  of  artificial  flowers  in  order  that  she  might 
have  a  new  spring  hat,  and  who  then  spent  one  whole 


164  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

night  in  the  cellar  of  her  home  crying  because  she 
was  a  thief. 

An  examination  of  the  records  of  300  boys  brought 
into  the  Juvenile  Court,  shows  that  81  were  brought 
in  for  stealing  from  cars  and  railroads,  the  articles 
stolen  covering  a  wide  range,  including  coal,  grain, 
canned  goods,  watermelon,  mincemeat,  furniture, 
whiskey,  tobacco,  cabbages,  soap,  apples  and  wine. 
A  large  munber  were  brought  in  for  steaUng  grain 
with  which  to  feed  their  chickens,  and  still  a  larger 
number  for  stealing  coal,  for  the  newly  arrived  immi- 
grants do  not  know  that  they  are  making  their  chil- 
dren break  the  law  when  they  send  them  out  to  pick 
up  the  family  fuel  on  the  railroad  tracks. 

I  remember  a  Dutch  family;  the  parents  spoke  no 
English  and  felt  very  bitterly  about  their  boy  who  was 
arrested  for  stealing  coal  in  the  railroad  yards:  as 
the  railroad  detective  said  the  boy  had  no  home  nor 
family,  he  was  sent  by  the  court  to  a  farm,  and  his 
parents  did  not  find  him  for  several  months. 

Under  the  second  class  are  the  boys  who  break 
windows,  flip  cars,  bum  boxes,  and  fences,  stone 
peddlers,  and  burglarize  stores  for  the  excitement  and 
pleasure  of  the  thing,  and  to  show  that  they  won't  be 
"bossed"  by  "old  country"  parents  and  relatives, 
and  the  girl  who  desperately  longs  for  better  sur- 
roundings than  her  immigrant  parents  can  give  her. 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      165 

An  Italian  girl  of  15  lived  with  her  family  in  a  base- 
ment so  damp  that  in  order  to  reach  the  house,  it  was 
necessary  to  walk  over  a  pool  of  water.  Nine  people 
lived  in  two  rooms  and  slept  in  two  beds.  The  girl  who 
was  pretty  and  attractive,  worked  in  a  factory  and 
envied  her  friends  who  lived  in  better  houses  than  she 
did.  To  complete  her  hardships  her  father  would  not 
allow  her  to  go  out  evenings  into  the  street,  fearing 
she  would  get  into  trouble.  There  was  nothing  the 
least  attractive  in  the  house,  and  she  longed  for 
the  "parlors  and  pianos"  of  her  more  fortunate 
friends.  She  saved  up  her  "overtime"  money  un- 
til she  had  $7.00,  ran  away  from  home,  and  rented 
a  room  for  a  week  on  a  respectable  thoroughfare. 
The  room  was  prettily  furnished  and  contained  a 
piano.  All  this  to  satisfy  a  longing  for  clean  and 
attractive  surroundings.  At  the  end  of  that  week, 
she  was  quite  willing  to  go  back  to  her  old  life,  but 
needless  to  say  this  period  of  freedom  led  to  her 
downfall. 

Frequently  we  find  that  the  immigrants  are  ignorant 
of  our  laws.  They  do  not  understand,  for  instance,  our 
compulsory  education  law  or  our  child  labor  law, 
because  they  have  thought  of  America,  as  a  country 
where  they  might  enjoy  Hfe  and  where  they  might 
live  on  the  earnings  of  their  children,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  support  them. 


l66  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Sometimes  young  immigrant  girls  are  imposed  upon 
because  they  are  ignorant  of  our  laws.  A  Polish  girl 
of  17  was  offered  marriage  soon  after  her  arrival  here, 
and  was  told  that  the  legal  ceremony  consisted  in 
appearing  before  the  license  clerk.  This  she  did,  and 
was  easily  persuaded  to  forego  the  rehgious  ceremony. 
After  a  month  the  man  deserted  her,  and  she  drifted 
into  a  disreputable  life  in  order  to  support  her  child. 

The  police  attitude  towards  children,  especially 
boys,  is  too  often  all  wrong;  the  children  of  the  immi- 
grant, instead  of  looking  upon  the  policeman  as  a 
friend,  whom  they  should  respect,  regard  him  as 
their  natural  enemy  and  try  to  get  even  with  him  by 
all  sorts  of  petty  law-breaking.  Recently  in  Chicago, 
a  pohceman  arrested  a  boy  who  was  running,  lodged 
him  in  a  cell  and  when  he  was  released  the  next  day, 
as  there  was  no  charge  against  him,  advised  him  not 
to  try  running  again. 

A  girl  coming  from  a  dance  hall,  ran  away  from  a 
man  who  was  trying  to  force  her  into  a  cheap  hotel. 
The  girl  was  arrested  by  a  policeman  and  lodged  in  a 
cell,  charged  with  disorderly  conduct;  when  a  friend 
endeavored  to  have  her  released,  saying  that  she  was 
trying  to  escape  from  the  man,  and  that  bringing 
her  into  court  would  brand  her  as  a  delinquent,  the 
police  lieutenant  repUed,  that  he  felt  sure  she  was 
already  a  delinquent,  that  he  wanted  her  brought 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      167 

into  court,  so  that  hereafter  she  might  be  known  by 
every  police  officer  in  that  district  and  picked  up 
whenever  she  was  found  on  the  streets. 

The  same  criticism  can  be  applied  to  the  special 
detectives,  employed  by  the  large  houses  and  manu- 
facturing concerns.  They  will  pounce  upon  the  boy 
who  has  stolen,  regardless  of  the  circumstances  which 
led  to  the  theft,  they  will  if  possible  put  him  in  the 
penitentiary,  quite  forgetting  that  in  so  doing  they 
may  lose  the  chance  of  making  a  good  citizen, 

A  boy  had  been  at  work  in  a  large  department  store 
for  four  years,  during  which  time  his  father  had 
taken  every  cent  of  his  wages,  allowing  him  only 
money  for  carfare.  Finally  the  desire  to  possess 
something  of  his  own  became  so  strong,  that  the  boy 
stole  a  camera,  a  baseball  bat,  and  a  boxing  glove. 
He  was  arrested  by  the  firm's  detective  and  as  the 
value  of  the  goods  stolen  was  over  $15.00,  the  detec- 
tive announced  his  intention  of  putting  the  boy  into 
the  penitentiary.  Had  it  not  been  for  outside  interfer- 
ence, he  would  have  succeeded  in  doing  so.  A  new 
place  of  employment  was  found  for  the  boy,  his  father 
was  persuaded  to  let  him  keep  his  wages,  and  he  has 
turned  out  an  honest  man. 

An  Italian  girl  was  kept  at  home  by  her  parents 
and  never  allowed  to  go  to  any  place  of  amusement. 
This  life  seemed  to  her  so  confined  and  so  unrelieved, 


l68  SAPEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

that  in  a  fit  of  despondency  she  banged  her  head 
against  the  wall,  doing  it  so  many  times  that  her 
life  was  in  danger,  saying,  ''I  might  as  well  be  dead 
as  shut  up  here  with  only  grown  people." 

Many  Greek  boys  are  brought  to  this  country  by 
older  men.  There  are  no  women  among  them,  no  home 
life  of  any  kind;  they  are  free  from  all  restraint  and 
board  together,  fifteen  or  twenty  in  a  group  with  no 
one  in  authority.  This  is  also  true  of  the  Bulgarians 
who  are  coming  without  their  families.  Very  often 
groups  of  PoUsh  girls  are  found  in  large  cities  living 
together;  perhaps  one  of  the  girls  has  a  brother  and 
he  brings  other  men  to  board ;  there  is  no  older  woman 
to  warn  them  of  the  danger;  they  forget  the  things 
they  have  been  so  carefully  taught  by  their  mothers; 
they  lose,  in  their  confined  quarters,  their  sense  of 
what  is  decent  and  proper,  and  soon  become  demoral- 
ized. One  such  girl  living  under  these  conditions 
said  that  they  had  been  so  mixed  up  together  that 
she  had  quite  forgotten  that  certain  things  were 
wrong. 

A  group  of  Russian  girls  were  living  together; 
several  of  them  tried  to  commit  suicide  and  one  suc- 
ceeded. Another  who  failed  gave  as  her  reason  that 
there  was  nothing  of  interest  in  this  country,  no  great 
issues  at  stake,  that  we  were  too  commercial  and  only 
cared  for  money,  that  no  one  thought  of  patriotism, 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      169 

that  we  were  not  bound  together  by  any  historic  mem- 
ories, that  we  knew  nothing  about  European  affairs, 
either  poUtical  or  reKgious,  that  Kfe  in  America  was 
nothing  but  one  great  economic  struggle  unreheved 
by  Kterature  or  art.  She  had  come  directly  from  the 
absorbing  activities  of  the  Russian  revolution  and, 
while  her  experience  was  exaggerated,  in  a  measure 
it  typified  that  of  a  large  army  of  people  who  enter 
the  United  States  annually,  seeking  escape  from 
economic  wrongs  or  political  persecution,  and  spurred 
on  by  the  magic  word  America,  which  has  been  in- 
terpreted to  them  as  meaning  "freedom  and  pros- 
perity." 

As  these  immigrants  land  at  Ellis  Island,  their  faces 
are  full  of  eagerness  and  expectation,  the  hardships 
of  the  long  voyage  are  forgotten,  the  discomforts  are 
ignored,  and  they  submit  without  a  sign  of  impatience 
to  the  medical  examination,  and  wait  with  almost 
pitiful  eagerness  for  their  discharge.  They  have,  per- 
haps, looked  forward  for  years  to  this  change  of 
home  and  dreamed  of  golden  opportunities  which 
are  open  for  them  and  their  children.  America  has 
stood  to  them  as  an  ideal  country,  an  asylum  for  the 
oppressed,  where  they  might  enjoy  religious  Kberty 
and  freedom  from  persecution,  where  the  price  of 
living  was  low,  work  plentiful  and  wages  high,  and 
where  they  could  secure  for  their  children  the  training 


lyo  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

and  education  that  should  make  them  happy  and 
independent. 

And  so  with  tickets  fastened  to  their  coats  and 
shawls,  the  newly  arrived  inunigrants  pass  through 
the  gate  of  hope  into  the  new  worid  of  their  choice, 
and  become  our  fellow  citizens. 

Most  of  these  immigrants  have  come  from  an  agri- 
cultural community,  and  the  rigors  of  the  long  voyage 
have  not  dimmed  the  sunburn  on  their  cheeks  nor  the 
brightness  of  their  eyes.  They  look  full  of  health  and 
vigor,  with  plenty  of  good  red  blood,  eager  and  anx- 
ious to  begin  Ufe  in  this  new  land,  and  hopeful  for 
the  future. 

These  immigrants  settling  in  the  already  over- 
crowded cities  which  they  still  further  congest,  create 
new  and  perplexing  problems  for  the  municipal  au- 
thorities, one  of  which  is  proper  provision  for  the 
health  and  well-being  of  their  children.  Not  only  is 
the  first  generation  born  in  America  less  stalwart  and 
rosy  than  their  parents,  but  freed  from  the  well- 
established  public  opinion  of  older  and  smaller  com- 
munities, they  are  exposed  to  peculiar  social  tempta- 
tions. 

The  dependence  of  young  people  upon  the  social 
restraints  of  their  own  neighborhoods,  was  further 
made  clear  to  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  in 
the  course  of  an  investigation  concerning  the  condi- 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      17I 

tion  of  boys  in  the  County  Jail.  The  Association  was 
much  startled  by  the  disproportionate  number  of 
colored  boys  and  young  men;  for  although  the  colored 
people  of  Chicago  approximate  one-fortieth  of  the 
entire  population,  one-eighth  of  the  boys  and  young 
men  and  nearly  one-third  of  the  girls  and  young 
women  who  had  been  confined  in  the  jail  during  the 
year  were  negroes. 

The  Association  had  previously  been  impressed  with 
the  fact  that  most  of  the  maids  employed  in  houses  ot 
prostitution  were  colored  girls  and  that  many  employ- 
ment agencies  quite  openly  sent  them  there,  although 
they  would  not  take  the  risk  of  sending  a  white  girl 
to  a  place  where,  if  she  was  forced  into  a  life  of  prosti- 
tution, the  agency  would  be  liable  to  a  charge  of 
pandering. 

In  an  attempt  to  ascertain  the  causes  which  would 
account  for  so  large  an  amount  of  delinquency  among 
the  colored  boys  and  the  public  opinion  which  would  so 
carelessly  place  the  virtue  of  a  colored  girl  in  jeopardy, 
the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  found  itself  in- 
volved in  a  study  of  the  industrial  and  social  status  of 
the  colored  people  of  Chicago. 

While  the  moraHty  of  every  young  person  is  closely 
bound  up  with  that  of  his  family  and  his  immediate 
environment,  this  is  especially  true  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  colored  families  who,  because  they  con- 


172  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

tinually  find  the  door  of  opportunity  shut  in  their 
faces,  are  more  easily  forced  back  into  their  early  en- 
vironment however  vicious  it  may  have  been.  The 
enterprising  young  people  in  immigrant  families  who 
have  passed  through  the  public  schools  and  are  earning 
good  wages,  continually  succeed  in  moving  their  entire 
households  into  more  prosperous  neighborhoods  where 
they  gradually  lose  all  trace  of  their  tenement-house 
experiences.  On  the  contrary,  the  colored  young  peo- 
ple, however  ambitious,  find  it  extremely  difficult  to 
move  their  families  or  even  themselves  into  desirable 
pa  rts  of  the  city  and  to  make  friends  in  these  surround- 
ings. 

Because  the  fate  of  the  young  people  was  thus  so  in- 
extricably a  part  of  the  life  of  the  colored  people  in 
Chicago,  the  investigators  found  themselves  studying 
the  entire  history  of  the  negro  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Michigan,  following  it  to  the  very  beginning  where  it 
is  said  the  first  cabin  was  built  in  1779,  by  a  negro 
from  San  Domingo. 

They  found  that  the  policy  toward  colored  people 
had  always  been  a  liberal  one.  In  1854  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  was  hooted  off  a  Chicago  platform  when  he 
tried  to  speak  for  his  pro-slavery  resolution  in  the 
Senate.  From  that  day  Chicago  took  a  leading  place 
in  the  anti-slavery  fight,  but  it  was  not  until  1872  that 
all  laws  discriminating  against  the  colored  people  were 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      173 

taken  off  the  Illinois  statute  books  and  in  the  next 
year,  1873,  the  colored  children  were  by  statute 
allowed  to  attend  the  public  schools  of  the  city. 

Although  no  separate  schools  have  ever  been  estab- 
lished in  Chicago,  it  was  found  that  many  colored 
young  people  become  discouraged  in  regard  to  a  "high 
school  education  "  because  of  the  tendency  of  the  em- 
ployers who  use  colored  persons  at  all  in  their  business, 
to  assign  them  to  the  most  menial  labor. 

Many  a  case  on  record  in  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  tells  the  tale  of  an  educated  young  negro 
who  failed  to  find  employment  as  a  stenographer, 
bookkeeper,  or  clerk.  One  rather  pathetic  story  is  of 
a  boy  graduated  from  a  technical  high  school  last 
spring.  He  was  sent  with  other  graduates  of  his  class 
to  a  big  electric  company  where,  in  the  presence  of 
his  classmates  he  was  told  that  "niggers  are  not  wanted 
here.''  The  Association  has  on  record  another  instance 
where  the  graduate  of  a  business  college  was  refused 
a  position  under  similar  circumstances.  This  young 
man  in  response  to  an  advertisement  went  to  a  large 
firm  to  ask  for  a  position  as  clerk.  "We  take  colored 
help  only  as  laborers,*'  he  was  told  by  the  manager  of 
a  firm  supposed  to  be  friendly  to  the  negroes. 

All  the  leading  business  colleges  in  Chicago,  except 
one,  frankly  discriminate  against  negro  students.  The 
one  friendly  school  at  present  among  twelve  hundred 


174  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

white  students  has  only  two  colored  students,  but  its 
records  show  as  many  as  thirty  colored  students  in 
the  past.  The  manager,  however,  claims  that  his 
business  has  suffered  in  consequence  of  his  friendliness 
to  the  negro.  Even  the  superintendent  of  the  Illinois 
Industrial  School  for  Boys  at  St.  Charles  complains 
that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  teach  trades  to  the  colored 
boys  in  his  institution,  because  it  is  so  very  difficult  for 
a  skilled  colored  man  to  secure  employment. 

This  reaction  against  education  is  one  of  the  indirect 
results  of  the  difficulties  which  young  colored  people 
encounter  in  their  efforts  to  find  work.  The  investi- 
gators considered  this  difficulty  one  of  the  gravest 
features  in  the  entire  situation,  affecting  alike  most 
disastrously  all  of  the  colored  people  in  Chicago. 

From  the  interviews  with  all  the  boys  in  the  jail  it 
was  clear  that  the  lack  of  congenial  and  remunerative 
employment  had  been  a  determining  factor  in  their 
tendency  to  criminaUty,  but  because  the  colored  boys 
suffered  under  an  additional  handicap  and  because  the 
opportunities  for  work  are  the  essentials  for  all  eco- 
nomic progress,  the  entire  investigation  had  much 
to  do  with  the  basic  question  of  employment. 

The  colored  man  believes  that  the  labor  unions  dis- 
criminate against  him,  either  openly  or  secretly;  a  few 
of  the  organizations  have  a  clause  in  their  constitu- 
tions stating  that  whites  alone  are  eligible  to  member- 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 75 

ship,  but  most  of  them  allow  the  colored  man  to  pay 
his  initiation  fee  and  become  a  member;  they,  however, 
take  no  pains  to  secure  him  a  place,  and  when  he  finds 
it  difficult  to  find  work  because  the  contractor  and  his 
fellow  workmen  discriminate  against  him  and  he  gets 
a  job  only  here  and  there,  he  is  frequently  tempted  to 
work  with  "scabs,"  and  after  several  fines  for  this  in- 
fringement of  rules  he  drops  out  of  the  union.  The 
investigators  found  that  this  experience  was  not  the 
exception,  but  the  rule.  Mechanics  who  are  members 
of  the  building  trades  do  not  complain  because  they 
have  been  refused  membership  in  the  unions,  but  be- 
cause they  are  discriminated  against  when  it  comes 
to  securing  work,  although  this  discrimination  is 
not  extended  to  the  unskilled  colored  man.  There- 
fore, while  many  colored  mechanics  who  come  to 
Chicago  for  work  return  to  the  south,  where  there  are 
fewer  unions  and  white  men  more  willingly  work  with 
colored  men,  this  return  to  the  south  ahnost  never 
occurs  among  the  unskilled.  The  colored  people  them- 
selves beheve  that  their  difficulty  in  finding  work  is 
often  due  to  the  objection  of  the  employers  to  treating 
the  colored  man  with  the  respect  which  a  skilled 
mechanic  would  command.  Evidently  the  colored 
man  is  continually  driven  to  lower  kinds  of  occupa- 
tion which  are  gradually  being  discarded  by  the  white 
man. 


176  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

The  investigators  found  that  the  great  corpora- 
tions, for  one  reason  or  another,  refused  to  employ 
negroes.  Department  stores,  express  companies, 
and  the  public  utility  companies  employ  very  few 
colored  people.  Out  of  the  3,795  men  employed 
in  Chicago  by  the  eight  leading  express  companies, 
only  21  were  colored  men.  Fifteen  of  these  were 
porters.  The  investigators  found  no  colored  men  in 
Chicago  employed  as  boot  and  shoe  makers,  glove 
makers,  bindery  workers,  garment  workers'  trades  in 
factories,  cigar  box  makers,  elevated  railroad  employ- 
ees, neckwear  trades,  suspender  makers  and  printers. 
No  colored  women  are  employed  in  dressmaking,  cap 
making,  lingerie  or  corset  making.  The  two  reasons 
given  for  this  non-employment  by  the  employers  are, 
first,  the  refusal  of  the  white  employees  to  work  with 
the  colored  people;  second,  that  the  "colored  help"  is 
slower  and  not  so  efficient  as  the  white.  Some  em- 
ployers solve  the  second  difficulty  by  paying  the 
colored  people  less.  In  the  laimdries,  for  instance, 
where  colored  people  do  the  Scime  work  as  the  white, 
the  latter  average  a  dollar  a  week  more. 

The  effects  of  these  restrictions  upon  the  negroes  are, 
first,  that  they  are  crowded  into  undesirable  and  under- 
paid occupations.  As  an  example,  about  12%  of  the 
colored  men  in  Chicago  work  in  saloons  and  poolrooms. 
Second,  there  is  a  greater  competition  in  a  limited  field 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 77 

with  a  consequent  tendency  to  lower  the  already  low 
wages.  Third,  the  colored  women  are  forced  to  go  to 
work  to  help  earn  the  family  living;  this  occurs  so 
universally  as  to  affect  the  entire  family  and  social  life 
of  the  negro  colony. 

A  large  number  of  negroes  are  employed  on  the  rail- 
roads, largely  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Pullman 
Palace  Car  Company.  There  is  a  tradition  among 
colored  people  that  Mr.  Pullman  inserted  a  clause  in 
his  will  urging  the  company  to  employ  colored  men 
on  the  trains  whenever  possible,  but  while  the  in- 
vestigators found  1,849  Pulhnan  porters  living  in 
Chicago,  they  counted  7,625  colored  men  working  in 
saloons  and  poolrooms.  There  is  also  a  high  per- 
centage of  them  employed  in  the  theatres;  more  than 
one-fourth  of  all  the  employees  in  the  leading  theatres 
of  Chicago  are  colored  men. 

The  Federal  Government  has  always  been  a  large 
employer  of  colored  labor;  9  per  cent  of  the  force  in  all 
the  Federal  departments  are  negroes.  In  Chicago  the 
percentage  of  colored  men  is  higher.  Out  of  a  total  of 
8,012  men,  755  or  10.61  per  cent  of  the  whole  are 
colored,  approximately  their  just  proportion  to  the 
population.  The  negroes,  however,  do  not  fare  so  well 
in  local  government.  A  study  made  of  the  city  de- 
partments in  Chicago  showed  the  percentage  of  colored 
employees  to  be  1.87  per  cent,  in  Cook  County  to  be 


1 78  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

1.88  per  cent.  Three  colored  men  have  also  been 
elected  as  County  Commissioners  and  there  is  said 
to  be  no  instance  on  record  in  Chicago  of  a  negro  office 
holder  having  betrayed  his  trust. 

The  investigators  found,  in  regard  to  the  colored 
man  in  business:  first,  that  the  greater  number  of  their 
enterprises  are  the  outgrowth  of  domestic  and  per- 
sonal service  occupations;  second,  that  they  are  in 
branches  of  business  which  call  for  small  amounts  of 
capital  and  very  little  previous  experience.  There  are 
at  present  in  the  city  of  Chicago  twenty-three  manu- 
facturing establishments  of  various  kinds,  managed 
by  colored  men. 

In  the  colored  belt  on  the  South  Side  of  Chicago 
there  are  a  number  of  business  houses  managed  by 
colored  people  and  patronized  exclusively  by  mem- 
bers of  their  own  race.  There  is  also  one  bank  located 
in  a  fine  building  of  which  a  colored  man  is  president 
and  80%  of  the  depositors  white.  According  to  the 
evidence  confirmed  by  the  figures  of  the  United  States 
census,  however,  there  is  little  possibility  for  a  colored 
business  man  to  make  a  living  solely  from  the  patron- 
age of  his  own  people.  The  census  report  holds  that 
he  succeeds  in  business  only  when  two-thirds  of  his 
customers  are  white.  This  affords  one  explanation  of 
the  fact  that  most  of  his  business  is  of  such  a  character 
that  a  white  man  is  willing  to  patronize  it — barber" 


\ 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 79 

shops,  expressing,  restaurants,  and  other  business  sug- 
gesting personal  service. 

In  a  mile  on  State  Street,  from  No.  3000  to  3900,  the 
investigators  found  108  colored  men  in  business,  who 
employed  270  colored  men.  Of  these  business  imder- 
takings,  12  were  saloons  and  six  were  poolrooms,  only- 
one  of  which  has  survived  so  long  as  five  years,  while 
eleven  others  have  changed  proprietors  recently.  This 
may  be  partly  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  requires  very 
Kttle  money  to  run  either,  since  both  the  breweries 
and  the  poolroom  manufacturers  readily  accommo- 
date their  salesmen  with  their  goods  and  other  fittings, 
and  many  young  colored  men,  who  have  been  em- 
ployed in  them,  are  ambitious  themselves  to  become 
proprietors.  While  in  a  measure  the  decency  of  such  a 
place  depends  upon  the  proprietor,  he  usually  responds 
to  the  pressure  of  the  large  concern  who  is  his  creditor. 
The  total  amount  of  capital  invested  in  the  mile  by 
the  108  colored  men  was  found  to  be  $15,750. 

There  is  a  large  proportion  of  real  estate  dealers 
among  colored  men,  many  of  whom  do  business  with 
white  people,  the  negro  dealer  often  becoming  the 
agent  for  houses  which  the  white  dealers  refuse  to 
handle.  Colored  people  are  very  eager  to  own  their 
own  homes  and  many  of  them  are  buying  small  houses, 
divided  into  two  flats,  living  in  one  and  collecting  rent 
from  the  other.     The  contract  system  prevails  in 


l8o  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Chicago,  making  it  possible  for  a  man  with  two  or 
three  hundred  dollars  for  the  first  payment  to  enter 
into  a  contract  for  the  purchase  of  a  piece  of  property, 
the  deed  bein^  held  by  the  real  estate  man  imtil  the 
purchaser  pays  the  amount  stipulated  in  the  contract. 
As  was  ascertained  in  a  careful  study  of  the  housing 
conditions  of  colored  people  made  by  the  students  of 
the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy,  there 
are  four  well-defined  districts  in  which  colored  people 
have  resided  for  a  number  of  years — one  at  Englewood, 
one  at  55th  Street  and  Lake  Avenue,  one  on  the  West 
Side,  and  the  largest  known  as  the  "Black  Belt"  which 
includes  the  old  22nd  Street  segregated  \ice  district. 
In  this  so-called  "belt"  the  number  of  children  is  re- 
markably small,  forming  only  a  little  more  than  one- 
tenth  of  the  population,  while  the  lodgers  constitute 
37%  of  the  population.  The  investigation  made  by 
the  School  of  Civics  showed  that  only  26%  of  the 
houses  on  the  South  Side  and  36%  of  the  houses  in  the 
West  Side  colored  district  were  in  good  repair.  Col- 
ored tenants  reported  that  they  found  it  impossible 
to  persuade  their  landlords  either  to  make  the  neces- 
sary repairs  or  to  release  them  from  their  contracts, 
but  that  it  was  so  hard  to  find  places  in  which  to  live 
that  they  were  forced  to  endure  unsanitary  conditions. 
The  investigation  confirmed  the  general  impression 
that  the  rent  paid  by  a  negro  is  appreciably  higher 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      l8l 

than  that  paid  by  any  other  tenant.  In  a  flat  build- 
ing formerly  occupied  by  white  people,  the  white 
families  paid  a  rent  of  $12  for  a  six-room  apartment 
for  which  a  negro  family  are  now  paying  $16.  A  white 
family  paid  $17  for  an  apartment  of  seven  rooms  for 
which  negroes  are  now  paying  $20. 

The  negro  real  estate  dealer  frequently  offers  to  the 
owner  of  an  apartment  house,  which  is  no  longer  rent- 
ing advantageously  to  white  tenants,  cash  payment 
for  a  year's  lease  on  the  property,  thus  guaranteeing 
the  owner  against  loss,  and  he  then  fills  the  building 
with  colored  tenants.  It  is  said,  however,  that  the 
agent  does  not  put  out  the  white  tenants  unless  he  can. 
get  10%  more  from  the  colored  people.  By  this 
method  the  negroes  now  occupy  many  large  apart- 
ment buildings,  but  the  negro  real  estate  agents  obtain 
the  reputation  of  exploiting  their  own  race. 

High  rents  among  the  colored  people,  as  every- 
where else,  force  the  families  to  take  in  lodgers. 
Nearly  one-third  of  the  population  in  the  district 
investigated  on  the  South  Side  and  nearly  one-seventh 
of  the  population  in  the  district  investigated  on  the 
West  Side  were  lodgers.  While  this  practice  is  always 
found  dangerous  to  family  Hfe,  it  is  particularly  so 
to  the  boys  and  girls  of  colored  families,  who  are  often 
obliged  to  live  near  the  vice  districts.  To  quote  from 
the  report,  ''The  history  of  the  social  evil  in  Chicago 


l82  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

is  intimately  connected  with  the  colored  population. 
Invariably  the  larger  vice  districts  have  been  created 
within  or  near  the  settlements  of  colored  people.  In 
the  past  history  of  the  city  neariy  every  time  a  new 
vice  district  was  created  downtown  or  on  the  South 
Side,  the  colored  families  within  the  district  moved  in 
just  ahead  of  the  prostitutes." 

When  it  becomes  possible  for  the  colored  people  of 
a  better  class  to  buy  property  in  a  good  neighborhood, 
so  that  they  may  take  care  of  their  children  and  live 
respectably,  there  are  often  protest  meetings  among 
the  white  people  in  the  vicinity  and  sometimes  even 
riots.  A  striking  example  of  the  latter  occurred 
within  the  past  three  years  on  the  West  Side  of 
Chicago:  a  colored  woman  bought  a  lot  near  a  small 
park,  upon  which  she  built  a  cottage.  It  was  not 
until  she  moved  into  the  completed  house  that  the 
neighbors  discovered  that  a  colored  family  had  ac- 
quired property  there.  They  immediately  began  a 
crusade  of  insults  and  threats.  When  this  brought 
no  results,  a  "night  raid"  company  was  organized. 
In  the  middle  of  the  night  a  masked  band  broke  into 
the  house,  told  the  family  to  keep  quiet  or  they  would 
be  murdered;  they  then  tore  down  the  newly  built 
house,  destroying  everything  in  it.  This  is,  of  course, 
an  extreme  instance,  but  there  have  been  many  similar 
to  it.   Quite  recently  in  a  suburb  of  Chicago,  animosity 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 83 

against  negro  residents  resulted  in  the  organization 
of  an  anti-negro  committee  which  requested  the  dis- 
missal of  all  negroes  who  were  employed  in  the  town 
as  gardeners  or  janitors,  because  the  necessity  of 
housing  their  families  depressed  real  estate  values. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association,  as  a  supple- 
ment to  the  previous  housing  investigations,  studied 
the  conditions  of  fifty  of  the  better  homes  occupied 
by  the  colored  people  of  C'^cago:  those  in  the  so-called 
''Black  Belt"  in  the  city,  those  in  a  suburban  district, 
and  other  houses  situated  in  blocks  in  which  only  one 
or  two  colored  families  lived.  The  size  of  the  houses 
varied  from  five  to  fourteen  rooms,  averaging  eight 
rooms  each;  the  conditions  of  the  houses  inside  and 
out  compared  favorably  with  similar  houses  occupied 
by  white  families.  Classified  according  to  occupation, 
the  heads  of  the  household  in  9  cases  were  railroad 
porters;  the  next  largest  number  were  janitors,  then 
waiters,  and  among  them  were  found  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, and  clergymen.  In  only  four  instances  was  the 
woman  of  the  house  working  outside  the  home.  Only 
4  of  the  homes  took  in  lodgers,  and  children  were 
found  in  only  15  of  the  50  families  studied.  The  total 
of  33  children  found  in  the  fifty  homes  averages  but 
two-thirds  of  a  child  for  each  family  and,  but  for  one 
family, — a  janitor  living  in  a  ten-room  house  and 
having  eight  children — the  average  would  have  been 


184  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

but  half  a  child  for  a  family;  confirming  the  statement 
often  made  that  while  the  poorer  colored  people  in 
the  agricultural  districts  of  the  south,  like  the  poor 
ItaHans  in  rural  Italy,  have  very  large  families,  when 
they  move  to  the  city  and  become  more  prosperous, 
the  birth  rate  among  colored  people  falls  below  that 
of  the  average  prosperous  American  family . 

From  the  homes  situated  in  white  neighborhoods, 
only  two  reported  "indignation  meeting  when  they 
moved  in"  and  added  "quiet  now";  one  other  re- 
ported "no  afl&liation  with  white  neighbors";  still 
another,  "white  neighbors  visit  in  time  of  sickness," 
and  the  third  was  able  to  say  "neighbors  friendly." 
Of  the  ownership  of  the  50  homes,  35  were  owned  by 
colored  men,  12  by  white  landlords,  and  the  owner- 
ship of  3  was  not  ascertained;  34  of  the  houses  were 
occupied  by  their  owners. 

In  addition  to  the  50  families  living  in  comfortable 
houses,  100  more  cases  of  fairly  prosperous  colored 
famihes  were  investigated.  It  was  found  that  only 
six  of  the  heads  of  these  families  had  been  bom  in 
Chicago,  that  77  had  come  from  the  south,  all  of  the 
southern  states  being  represented.  Only  6  of  the 
92  men  born  outside  of  the  state  had  been  brought  to 
Chicago  as  children,  while  71  had  come  to  the  city 
between  the  ages  of  16  and  26.  They,  as  well  as  the 
older  men,  had  come  hoping  for  better  conditions, 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 85 

their  reasons  being  variously  put  as  "higher  wages," 
"learning  a  trade,"  "to  get  a  home,"  "to  make  big 
money,"  "to  get  a  position,"  "for  more  freedom," 
"for  more  schooling,"  although  in  19  cases  the  reason 
given  was  "curiosity,"  an  attempt  doubtless  to  for- 
mulate the  desire  for  adventure. 

Of  the  men  from  the  south  every  one  had  improved 
his  condition.  Those  who  said  their  conditions  had  not 
improved  had  been  formerly  working  in  the  large 
cities  of  the  east  or  north,  where  living  expenses  were 
less  than  in  Chicago;  only  one  received  lower  wages 
in  Chicago.  He  had  earned  $16  a  week  before  coming 
to  the  city  and  now  earns  $9.00;  two  said  their  condi- 
tion had  not  improved  because  they  "had  been  led  off 
by  fast  company."  The  incomes  varied  from  $9.00  a 
month  to  $153.60  a  month;  the  average  wage  was 
$67.32  a  month.  Sixteen  of  the  men  owned  real  estate 
and  six  others  had  liberal  bank  accounts.  These  re- 
sults probably  compare  favorably  with  one  hundred 
white  immigrants,  but  the  colored  man  insists  that 
the  immigrant  has  the  advantage  for,  when  he  learns 
the  language  of  the  country  and  adopts  American 
ways,  he  gradually  lives  down  any  prejudice  against 
him,  while  the  colored  man  can  never  make  himself 
acceptable  to  the  white  man  and  beHeves  that  he  is 
often  disliked  in  proportion  to  his  prosperity. 

In  contrast  to  these  100  cases  of  negro  men  who 


l86  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

were  fairly  successful,  loo  cases  of  colored  families 
were  taken  from  the  files  of  the  Juvenile  Protec- 
tive Association  representing,  of  course,  as  do  the 
white  families  whose  names  are  on  the  records  of  the 
Association,  people  who  were  unable  to  adequately 
protect  their  children.  Of  the  occupations  of  the  men, 
45  were  porters,  i6  janitors,  13  laborers,  the  rest 
scattered  in  different  kinds  of  work — teamsters, 
waiters,  cooks,  musicians.  The  striking  difference 
between  them  and  the  more  prosperous  families  lay 
in  the  fact  that  the  women  were  obliged  to  work.  Of 
the  women  in  these  families,  only  14  stayed  at  home; 
of  the  others,  26  were  day  workers  in  households;  12 
worked  in  laundries;  7  were  prostitutes;  the  others 
worked  at  various  occupations;  2  were  hairdressers; 
I  a  music  teacher.  Of  the  100  families,  30  were 
self-supporting;  16  did  not  support  their  families  at 
all,  while  54  received  outside  assistance.  In  regard 
to  their  family  status,  66  Uved  an  unbroken  family 
life;  in  21  cases  the  husband  and  wife  were  separated; 
7  women  were  deserted;  there  were  3  cases  of  illegal 
relationship.  Out  of  the  100  cases,  there  were  7  inter- 
marriages; in  two  instances  white  men  had  married 
colored  women;  in  5  instances  white  women  had 
married  colored  men. 

Out  of  the  100  poor  famihes  taken  from  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  records,  it  was  found  that  86 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 87 

of  the  women  went  out  to  work  and,  while  there  is  no 
doubt  that  this  number  is  abnormally  high,  it  is  always 
easier  for  a  colored  woman  to  find  work  than  it  is  for 
a  colored  man,  partly  because  white  people  have  the 
traditions  of  colored  servants  and  partly  because  there 
is  a  steadier  demand  and  a  smaller  supply  of  house- 
hold workers  and  charwomen  than  there  is  for  the 
kind  of  unskilled  work  done  by  men.  Even  here 
colored  people  are  discriminated  against,  and  although 
many  are  employed  in  highly  respectable  families, 
there  is  a  tendency  to  engage  them  in  low  class 
hotels  and  other  places  where  white  women  do  not 
care  to  go. 

No  federal  figures  later  than  1900  are  available  but 
in  a  governmental  report  made  then,  the  colored 
women  of  Chicago  constituted  42.5  per  cent  of  the 
bread-winners  of  their  race,  slightly  lower  than  the 
43.2  per  cent  given  in  the  census  report  for  the  entire 
United  States.  This  is  more  than  double  the  propor- 
tion of  white  women  employed,  which  the  census  gives 
as  20.6%  of  the  entire  white  population. 

As  60%  of  negro  working  women  over  16  years  of 
age  are  married,  there  is  no  doubt  that  many  colored 
children  are  neglected.  Investigators  found  from  con- 
sultation with  the  principals  of  the  schools  largely  at- 
tended by  colored  children  that  they  are  irregular  in 
attendance  and  often  tardy;  that  they  are  eager  tQ 


l88  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

leave  school  at  an  early  age,  although  in  one  school 
where  there  is  a  great  deal  of  manual  work  this  tend- 
ency is  less  pronounced.  Colored  children,  more  than 
any  others,  are  kept  at  home  to  care  for  younger 
members  of  the  family  while  the  mother  is  away  at 
work.  A  very  persistent  violation  of  the  compulsory 
education  law  recently  tried  in  the  Municipal  Court 
disclosed  the  fact  that  a  colored  brother  and  sister 
were  alternately  kept  out  of  school  to  care  for  the 
younger  children,  who  had  been  refused  admittance 
in  a  day  nursery;  that  the  old  woman  who  cared  for 
the  little  household  for  twenty-five  cents  a  day  was 
ill  and  that  the  mother  had  been  obliged  to  keep  the 
older  children  at  home  in  order  to  retain  her  place  in  a 
laundry.  At  the  very  best,  the  school  attendance  of 
the  two  children  had  been  most  unsatisfactory,  for 
the  mother  left  home  every  morning  at  half  past  six 
and  the  illiterate  old  woman  took  little  interest  in 
school.  The  lack  of  home  discipline  perhaps  accounts 
for  the  indifference  to  all  school  interests  on  the  part 
of  many  colored  children,  although  this  complaint 
is  not  made  of  those  in  the  high  schools  who  come  from 
more  prosperous  families.  The  most  striking  differ- 
ence in  the  health  of  the  colored  children  compared  to 
that  of  the  white  children  in  the  same  neighborhood 
was  the  larger  proportion  of  the  cases  of  rickets,  due, 
of  course,  to  malnutrition  and  neglect.    The  colored 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      1 89 

people  themselves  believe  the  school  authorities  are 
more  interested  in  a  school  whose  patronage  is  pre- 
dominantly white. 

It  was  found  that  young  colored  girls,  hke  the 
boys,  often  become  desperately  discouraged  in  their 
efforts  to  find  employment.  High  school  girls  of 
refined  appearance,  after  looking  for  weeks,  will  find 
nothing  open  to  them  in  department  stores,  office 
buildings  or  manufacturing  establishments,  save  a  few 
positions  as  maids  in  the  women's  waiting  rooms. 
Such  girls  find  it  continually  assumed  by  the  employ- 
ment agencies  to  whom  they  apply  for  positions 
that  they  are  willing  to  serve  as  domestics  in  low 
class  hotels  and  disreputable  houses.  Of  course,  the 
agency  does  not  explain  the  character  of  the  place  to 
which  the  girl  is  sent,  but  on  going  to  one  address 
after  another  she  finds  that  they  are  all  of  this  kind. 
Quite  recently  an  intelligent  colored  girl  who  had 
kept  a  careful  record  of  her  experiences  with  three 
employment  agencies  came  to  the  office  of  the  Ju- 
venile Protective  Association  to  see  what  might  be 
done  to  protect  colored  girls,  less  experienced  and 
self-rehant  than  herself,  against  similar  temptations. 
A  young  colored  girl  who,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  had 
been  sent  to  a  house  of  prostitution  by  an  employment 
agency,  was  rescued  from  the  house  by  one  of  our 
officers,  treated  in  a  hospital  and  sent  to  her  sister  in  a 


190  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

western  state.  She  there  married  a  respectable  man 
and  is  now  living  in  a  little  home  "almost  paid  for.'* 

The  case  of  Eliza  M.,  who  has  worked  as  a  cook  in  a 
disreputable  house  for  ten  years,  is  that  of  a  decent 
woman  forced  into  vicious  surroundings.  In  addition 
to  her  wages  of  $5.00  a  week  and  food,  which  she 
is  permitted  to  take  home  every  evening  to  her 
family,  she  has  been  able  to  save  her  generous  "tips" 
for  the  education  of  her  three  children,  for  whom  she 
is  very  ambitious. 

Colored  young  women  who  are  manicurists  and 
hair  dressers  find  it  continually  assimaed  that  they 
will  be  willing  to  go  to  hotels  under  compromising 
conditions  and,  when  a  decent  girl  refuses  to  go,  she 
is  told  that  that  is  all  that  she  can  expect.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  few  colored  girls  who  find  positions  as 
stenographers  or  bookkeepers  are  much  more  open 
to  insult  than  white  girls  in  similar  positions. 

All  these  experiences  tend  to  discourage  the  yoimg 
people  from  that  "education"  which  their  parents  so 
eagerly  desire  for  them  and  also  makes  it  extremely 
diflScult  for  them  to  maintain  their  standards  of  self- 
respect. 

Chicago  has  a  large  number  of  fine  negro  profes- 
sional men;  this  is  due  largely  to  the  number  of  schools 
and  universities  accessible  to  the  negro's  use.  There 
are  in  Chicago  65  colored  physicians,  4  of  whom  are 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      191 

women;  25  lawyers;  18  dentists;  12  pharmacists,  with 
many  students  in  attendance  at  the  universities  and 
professional  schools.  One  of  the  physicians  is  on  the 
staff  of  St.  Luke's  Hospital  and  others  are  responsible 
for  the  fine  medical  work  carried  on  at  the  Provident 
Hospital,  the  leading  hospital  for  colored  people  in  the 
United  States.  The  colored  people  are  justly  proud 
of  this  hospital,  founded  in  1891,  where  there  is  no 
discrimination  between  white  and  colored  people,  on 
the  staff  of  physicians  and  nurses,  nor  among  the 
patients. 

Among  the  many  colored  musicians  in  Chicago  are 
at  least  a  score  who  may  be  called  professionals;  two 
of  them  direct  orchestras;  one  is  a  pianist  of  local 
reputation;  at  least  four  of  them  singing  in  vaudeville 
are  also  composers  of  songs;  two  are  young  colored 
women  who  have  extensively  traveled  as  singers  in 
Cuba  and  South  America  as  well  as  in  the  United 
States.  Every  year  several  young  people  graduate  at 
the  various  musical  colleges,  and  a  gifted  young  violin- 
ist is  now  studying  in  Paris.  The  Art  Institute  often 
has  colored  students,  and  there  are  a  goodly  number 
of  colored  people  who  write  creditable  poetry,  chiefly 
words  to  songs  which  are  set  to  music  by  their  friends. 
Four  newspapers  edited  in  Chicago  by  colored  men, 
as  well  as  contributions  to  the  "Crisis"  and  other 
magazines,  give  evidence   of  a  marked  ability  for 


192  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

writing.  In  addition  to  several  clergymen  and  attor- 
neys of  undoubted  forensic  ability,  may  be  cited 
several  lecturers,  one  of  them  a  woman  with  a  gift 
for  public  speaking,  who  years  ago  roused  interest 
throughout  England  in  the  condition  of  colored 
people. 

The  church  among  the  colored  people  has  always 
been  the  chief  factor  in  their  social  Ufe.  In  Chicago 
there  are  29  regularly  organized  churches  in  addition 
to  various  missions,  with  approximately  twenty  thou- 
sand members.  This  includes  nearly  half  of  the  col- 
ored population  of  the  city,  a  much  larger  proportion 
than  the  church  membership  among  the  white  popula- 
tion. The  churches  own  property  to  the  amount  of 
$600,000  although  every  church  is  carrying  a  debt. 
The  church  is  a  centre  to  the  colored  people  for 
lectures,  literary  societies  and  civic  meetings.  The 
clergymen  are,  as  a  rule,  men  who  have  been  educated 
in  northern  and  southern  theological  seminaries,  but 
they  are  inclined  to  be  sectarian  and  to  confine  them- 
selves to  the  conventional  church  routine.  The  col- 
ored ministers  of  one  denomination  seldom  meet  with 
the  colored  ministers  of  another  denomination  and 
almost  never  with  the  white  ministers  of  their  own 
denomination.  They  complain  that  they  meet  with 
public  approval  when  they  work  for  the  religious 
advancement  of  their  own  race,  but  are  rebuffed 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      I93 

when  they  enter  into  general  movements  for  dvic 
betterment. 

A  Young  Men^s  Christian  Association  building  in 
Chicago  represents  the  largest  investment  ever  made 
by  that  association  to  be  devoted  to  the  interests  of 
colored  men  and  boys.  Its  entire  cost  approximates 
$195,000.  It  contains  the  standard  equipment  of 
gymnasiimi,  restaurant,  dormitories,  and  has  a  mem- 
bership of  2,000  although  the  annual  fee  is  $io. 

Among  the  colored  social  workers  of  the  city  are 
Juvenile  Court  and  adult  probation  officers,  visiting 
nurses  and  many  others.  The  standard  of  all  these 
social  workers  is  as  high  as  the  average,  and  several 
of  them — notably  two  young  women  Uving  at  the 
Wendell  Phillips  Settlement,  have  taken  the  full 
course  at  the  Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philan- 
thropy. The  colored  people  themselves  feel  that  there 
is  urgent  need  for  more  trained  social  workers.  The 
clubs  of  colored  women  which  are  beginning  to  inves- 
tigate the  social  needs  of  their  districts,  urge  their 
members  to  more  serious  study. 

There  are  four  settlements  in  Chicago  in  or  near  the 
neighborhoods  of  colored  people.  The  pioneer  was 
the  Frederick  Douglas  Center  on  the  South  Side  of 
Chicago,  founded  to  promote  a  better  understanding 
between  white  and  colored  people  and  to  help  removey 
the  arbitrary  disabilities  from  which  the  latter  suffer 


194  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

in  their  civil,  political  and  industrial  life.  The  founder 
and  head  resident,  who  had  for  years  been  troubled 
by  the  increasing  race  antagonism  against  the  colored 
people,  beheves  that  much  can  be  accompUshed  by  a 
frank  discussion  of  the  situation  between  the  two 
races  if  it  be  carried  on  with  justice  and  goodwill; 
cases  of  unusual  discrimination  are  often  arbitrated 
and  adjusted. 

The  Negro  Fellowship  League,  founded  as  an 
outgrowth  of  the  discussion  following  the  Springfield 
riots  when  it  was  said  that  the  diificulty  arose  from 
idle  young  men  out  of  work,  maintains  a  reading 
room,  a  lodging  house,  and  an  employment  agency  in 
the  midst  of  the  "Black  Belt."  The  League  performs 
many  offices  for  the  colored  men  who  have  newly  ar- 
rived in  Chicago  similar  to  those  of  the  League  for  the 
Protection  of  Immigrants;  in  fact,  the  needs  of  the 
two  classes  of  people  are  similar  in  many  respects, 
implying  lack  of  adjustment  rather  than  lack  of 
abiHty. 

A  day  nursery  for  colored  children  was  organized  a 
year  ago  because  several  day  nurseries  refused  to  re- 
ceive colored  children  on  the  ground  that  "the  other 
people  objected  to  them."  There  are  likewise  five 
homes  for  colored  dependent  children;  two  were  the 
outgrowth  of  apparent  discrimination  against  colored 
children  in  two  state  industrial  schools  receiving  public 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      195 

funds.  It  is  becoming  a  custom,  on  the  part  of  many 
institutions,  to  refuse  colored  children,  with  the  cryp- 
tic utterance,  "We  have  no  room."  In  spite  of  various 
efforts  on  the  part  of  colored  people,  the  care  for  de- 
pendent and  semi-delinquent  colored  children  is 
totally  inadequate,  a  situation  which  is  the  more  re- 
markable as  the  pubhc  records  all  give  a  high  percent- 
age of  negro  criminals;  the  Pohce  Department  give 
7.7%;  the  Juvenile  Court  6.5%;  the  County  Jail  10%. 
To  take  one  record  from  the  files  of  the  Associa- 
tion: George  W.  was  a  colored  boy,  19  years  old, 
who  was  born  in  Chicago  and  had  attended  the  pubHc 
schools  through  one  year  at  the  high  school.  He 
lived  with  his  mother  and  had  worked  steadily  for 
three  years  as  a  porter  in  a  large  grocery  store,  until 
August  22,  191 2,  when  he  was  arrested  on  the  charge 
of  rape.  On  the  late  afternoon  of  that  day  an  old 
woman  was  assaulted  by  a  negro  and  was  saved 
from  the  horrible  attack  only  by  the  timely  arrival  of 
her  daughter,  who  so  frightened  the  assailant  that  he 
jumped  out  of  a  window.  Two  days  later  George 
was  arrested,  charged  with  the  crime.  At  the  police 
station  he  was  not  allowed  to  sleep;  was  beaten,  cuffed 
and  kicked,  and  finally,  battered  and  frightened,  he 
confessed  that  he  had  committed  the  crime.  When 
he  appeared  in  court,  his  lawyer  advised  him  to  plead 
guilty,  although  the  boy  explained  that  he  had  not 


196  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

committed  the  crime,  and  had  confessed  simply  be- 
cause he  was  forced  to  do  so.  The  evidence  against  him 
was  so  flimsy  that  the  judge  referred  to  it  as  such  in 
his  instructions  to  the  jury.  The  State's  Attorney  had 
failed  to  establish  the  ownership  of  the  cap  dropped 
by  the  fleeing  assailant  and  the  hour  of  the  attempted 
act  was  changed  during  the  testimony.  Though  the 
description  given  by  the  people  who  saw  the  colored 
man  running  away  did  not  agree  with  George's  ap- 
pearance, nevertheless  the  jury  brought  in  a  verdict 
of  guilty  and  the  judge  sentenced  the  boy  to  fourteen 
years  in  the  penitentiary.  When  one  of  the  men  who 
had  seen  the  guilty  man  running  from  the  old  woman's 
house  was  asked  why  he  did  not  make  his  testimony 
more  explicit,  he  replied,  "Oh,  well,  he's  only  a  nigger 
anyway."  The  case  was  brought  to  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  by  the  employer  of  George  W., 
who,  convinced  of  the  boy's  good  character,  felt  that 
he  had  not  had  a  fair  trial.  The  Association  found 
that  the  boy  could  absolutely  prove  an  alibi  at  the 
time  of  the  crime  but,  in  spite  of  vigorous  efforts, 
have  been  unable  to  get  him  out  of  the  penitentiary. 

The  reasons  given  by  the  leading  colored  men  of 
Chicago  for  the  large  amount  of  crime  among  their 
people  are  curiously  confirmed  by  the  results  of  this 
investigation.  They  contend  that  first,  the  negroes 
in  Chicago  are  so  limited  in  the  choice  of  employment 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      I97 

that  they  underbid  each  other  and  are  forced  to  work 
for  the  smallest  wages.  This  obliges  the  wife  and 
mother  to  go  out  to  work  and  the  consequent  neglect 
of  the  children  leads  to  truancy,  incorrigibility  and 
crime.  Second,  that  the  colored  people  of  Chicago 
are  obliged  to  pay  such  a  high  rental  that  a  large 
number  of  families  are  forced  to  take  in  lodgers,  which 
results  in  much  immorahty  and  indecency  among 
colored  people  who  would  otherwise  remain  respect- 
able. Third,  that  the  colored  people  are  forced  to 
make  their  homes  in  and  near  the  openly  immoral  dis- 
tricts of  the  city  so  that  the  only  white  people  many 
colored  children  ever  see  are  those  frequenting  the 
vice  district.  Fourth,  the  disproportionate  number 
of  negro  criminals  is  due  to  the  fact  that  their  desire 
for  the  friendship  and  sympathy  of  the  white  people 
is  often  exploited  by  white  criminals  who  wish  to  se- 
cure shelter  from  the  police.  Some  obscure  colored 
family,  happy  to  render  a  service  to  a  white  man, 
hides  a  criminal  sometimes  for  weeks  or  months,  and 
he  naturally  influences  the  colored  men  with  whom 
he  associates. 

As  remedies  against  the  unjust  discrimination 
against  the  colored  man  suspected  of  crime,  a  leading 
attorney  of  the  race  in  Chicago  suggests:  general- 
izmg  against  the  negro  should  cease;  the  fact  that  one 
negro  is  bad  should  not  fix  criminaUty  upon  the  race. 


198  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

The  race  should  be  judged  by  its  best  as  well  as  by 
its  worst  types.  The  public  press  never  associates 
the  nationality  of  a  criminal  so  markedly  in  its  account 
of  crime  as  in  the  case  of  a  negro.  This  exception  is 
most  unjust  and  harmful,  the  negro  should  not  be 
made  the  universal  "scapegoat."  When  a  crime  is 
committed,  the  sHghtest  pretext  starts  the  rumor  of  a 
"negro  suspect"  and  flaming  headlines  prejudice  the 
pubUc  mind  long  after  the  white  criminal  is  found. 

The  colored  man  complains  of  race  prejudice  ex- 
hibited, first,  in  the  readiness  to  condemn  the  untried 
negro  as  a  criminal;  second,  in  the  refusal  to  give  him 
employment  fitted  to  his  skill  and  capacity;  third,  in 
crowding  the  colored  population  into  the  most  un- 
desirable houses  in  the  city.  He  does  not  resent  social 
ostracism,  but  he  does  make  a  vigorous  demand  for 
his  civil  and  economic  rights. 

All  colored  people  are  especially  fond  of  music,  but 
almost  the  only  outlet  the  young  people  find  for  their 
musical  facility  is  in  vaudeville  shows,  amusement 
parks  and  inferior  types  of  theatres.  That  which 
should  be  a  great  source  of  inspiration  tends  to  pull 
them  down,  as  their  love  of  pleasure,  lacking  innocent 
expression,  draws  them  toward  the  vice  district,  where 
alone  the  color  line  disappears. 

An  effort  was  recently  made  by  some  colored  people 
in  Chicago  to  start  a  model  dance  hall.    The  white 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      IQQ 

people  of  the  vicinity,  assuming  that  it  would  be 
an  objectionable  place,  successfully  opposed  it  as  a 
public  nuisance  and  this  effort  toward  better  recrea- 
tion facilities  had  to  be  abandoned. 

Even  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  are  not  available 
for  colored  children  who  are  not  welcomed  by  the 
white  children  at  the  bathing  beaches;  late  last 
summer  one  little  colored  boy  who  attempted  to  bathe 
was  mobbed  and  treated  so  roughly  that  the  police 
were  obliged  to  send  in  a  riot  call. 

The  investigation  explains  the  presence  of  so  large 
a  proportion  of  colored  boys  in  the  County  Jail  on 
the  following  grounds:  First,  the  colored  children  are 
forced  to  live  in  the  very  worst  neighborhoods  in 
Chicago  and  even  there  the  colored  families  are 
charged  such  high  rents  that  the  house  is  filled  with 
"floaters"  of  a  very  undesirable  class,  so  that  the 
children  witness  all  kinds  of  offenses  against  decency 
within  the  house  as  well  as  on  the  streets. 

Second,  the  fathers  of  the  famihes,  because  they  are 
so  circumscribed  in  their  Hues  of  occupation,  work  for 
very  small  wages,  with  the  inevitable  outcome  that 
the  mothers  go  out  to  work  and  neglect  their  children. 
As  a  result,  the  colored  children  are  underfed,  irregu- 
lar in  school  attendance,  make  slow  progress  in  their 
studies  and  drop  out  of  school  at  the  earhest  possible 
moment. 


200  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

Third,  there  are  not  enough  places  in  Chicago  where 
negro  children  may  find  wholesome  amusement.  Of 
the  fifteen  small  parks  and  playgrounds  with  field 
houses,  only  two  are  really  utilized  by  colored  children. 

They  avoid  the  other  parks  because  of  the  friction 
and  difliculty  which  they  constantly  encounter  with 
the  white  children.  The  commercial  amusements 
found  in  the  neighborhoods  of  colored  people  are  of 
the  lowest  type  of  poolrooms  and  saloons,  which  are 
artificially  numerous  because  so  many  young  colored 
men  find  their  first  employment  in  these  two  occu- 
pations. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  factor  of  all  is  the  diffiailty 
which  colored  people  have  in  finding  employment; 
and  after  an  ambitious  boy  has  been  refused  employ- 
ment again  and  again  in  the  larger  mercantile  and 
industrial  establishments  and  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  there  is  no  use  in  trying  to  get  a  decent  job,  he  is 
in  a  very  dangerous  state  of  mind.  Idle  and  discour- 
aged, his  neighborhood  environment  vicious,  such  a 
boy  quickly  shows  the  first  symptoms  of  delinquency 
and  the  remedial  agencies  which  should  be  prompt  in 
his  case  are  the  very  weakest  at  this  point.  Added 
to  this  is  the  conviction  held  by  many  colored  boys 
and  young  men  that  "the  police  have  it  in  for  them 
and  do  not  accord  them  fair  treatment." 

In  suggesting  remedies  for  this  state  of  affairs,  the 


PROTECTION  AGAINST  ILLEGAL  DISCRIMINATION      201 

broken  family  life,  the  surrounding  of  a  vicious  neigh- 
borhood, the  dearth  of  adequate  employment,  the 
lack  of  preventive  institutional  care  and  proper  rec- 
creation  for  negro  youth,  the  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  found  itself  confronted  with  the  situation 
stated  at  the  beginning  of  the  investigation,  that  the 
life  of  the  colored  boy  and  girl  is  so  circumscribed  on 
every  hand  by  race  limitations  that  they  can  be 
helped  only  in  so  far  as  the  entire  colored  population 
in  Chicago  is  understood  and  fairly  treated. 

For  many  years  Chicago,  keeping  to  the  tradition 
of  its  early  history,  had  the  reputation  among  colored 
people  of  according  them  fair  treatment.  Even  now 
it  is  free  from  the  outward  signs  of  segregation,  but 
unless  the  city  realizes  more  fully  than  it  does  at 
present  the  great  injustice  which  discrimination 
against  any  class  of  citizens  entails,  we  shall  suffer  for 
our  indifference  by  an  ever  increasing  number  of  idle 
and  criminal  youth,  which  must  eventually  vitiate 
both  the  black  and  the  white  citizenship  of  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  Vn 

NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION 

Year  after  year  it  becomes  clearer  to  the  Juvenile 
Protective  Association  that  thousands  of  young  people 
can  be  daily  protected  from  moral  and  social  dangers 
only  through  the  faithful  administration  of  well- 
considered  laws.  Because  the  electorate  itself  is  ulti- 
mately responsible  for  the  character  of  executive  offi- 
cials as  well  as  law-makers,  it  was  a  matter  of  great 
interest  to  the  Association  when  in  19 13  a  partial 
franchise  was  given  to  the  women  of  Illinois. 

Inevitably  a  small  number  of  women  did  not  want 
it.  They  were  either  indifferent  to  public  matters  or 
they  felt  that  the  possession  of  the  vote  would  make 
no  difference  in  the  final  results,  but  a  very  large  num- 
ber were  eager  for  it,  convinced  that  with  it  they  could 
secure  better  protection  for  children,  better  conditions 
for  wage-earning  women  and  a  general  improvement 
in  civic  affairs.  That  the  women  in  Chicago  as  a  whole 
realized  the  responsibility  of  the  vote  was  evidenced 
by  the  large  number  who  registered  and  voted  at  the 
first  municipal  election  for  which  they  were  eligible. 

There  are  in  Chicago  approximately  42o,ocx)  women 

202 


NEED   OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  203 

who  may  vote  if  they  so  desire  and  of  this  number 
218,000  have  registered,  comparing  favorably  with 
the  number  of  men  who  are  registered. 

Chicago  women  have  always  been  actively  inter- 
ested in  the  welfare  of  women  and  children  and  they 
have  been  responsible  for  the  starting  of  many  ac- 
tivities, among  them  the  kindergartens  in  the  public 
schools,  school  nurses,  the  Juvenile  Court,  industrial 
schools  for  dependent  children,  matrons  in  the  police 
stations,  women  police  and  a  hundred  other  beneficent 
undertakings. 

Whatever  men  may  believe  in  regard  to  the  pro- 
priety of  the  vote  for  women,  those  with  the  ability  to 
see  the  social  changes  which  are  daily  going  on  about 
us,  are  almost  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  it  is 
highly  proper  for  women  to  engage  in  philanthropy. 
Many  men,  however,  fail  to  see  that  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  present  day  philanthropy  lies  in  the  fact 
that  many  undertakings  organized  and  first  main- 
tained by  disinterested  citizens  as  private  benefac- 
tions, when  they  have  proved  their  social  worth  and 
utiHty  are  taken  over  by  the  city,  county  or  state: 
that  thereafter  they  are  managed  by  pubhc  officials 
and  paid  for  out  of  pubUc  funds.  This  can  be  easily 
illustrated  by  many  examples. 

Several  years  ago  in  Chicago  the  Visiting  Nurse 
Association— a  board  consisting  entirely  of  women— 


204  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

iindertook  to  extend  the  advantage  of  nursing  to 
the  children  in  the  public  schools  in  order  that  they 
might  decrease  truancy,  that  the  spread  of  infection 
might  be  avoided  and  that  the  children  might  be  cured 
of  the  many  little  ills  to  which  neglected  children 
are  so  subject. 

The  Association  did  this  work  acceptably  for  two 
years,  but  when  it  was  gradually  taken  over  by  the 
Public  Health  Department  of  the  city  the  women,  of 
course,  lost  its  direct  supervision.  Any  suggestion 
that  one  of  the  women  who  had  initiated  the  work  of 
the  school  nurses  should  be  elected  to  the  City  Council 
which  is  directly  responsible  for  the  administration  and 
financial  appropriation  of  the  Health  Department  was, 
of  course,  considered  quite  impossible;  she  could  not 
even  vote  for  a  member  of  the  City  Council.  There  is 
a  fine  distinction,  apparently  logical  to  the  masculine 
mind,  that  it  is  most  ladylike  and  philanthropic  to 
direct  the  work  of  the  school  nurses  when  paid  for  by 
a  private  association,  but  that  it  is  most  unwomanly 
and  reprehensible  to  direct  the  work  of  school  nurses 
when  paid  for  by  the  dty! 

As  an  example  in  the  county  we  might  instance  the 
probation  officers  connected  with  the  Juvenile  Court 
of  Cook  County  who  during  the  earlier  years  were  paid 
for  by  a  volunteer  organization  consisting  of  women. 
Seven  years  ago  these  probation  officers — the  majority 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION       205 

of  them  the  same  people  who  had  been  selected  by  the 
volunteer  committee — were  taken  over  by  the  county 
and  their  salaries  paid  from  public  funds  when  they 
continued  to  do  the  same  work  and  were  still  re- 
sponsible for  the  dehcate  task  of  reestablishing  chil- 
dren who  had  been  paroled  to  them  by  the  Juvenile 
Court.  They  spent  many  hours  talking  to  the  mothers 
and  teachers  of  such  children,  but  they  were  account- 
able only  to  the  county  officials.  Any  suggestion  that 
one  of  the  public-spirited  women  so  long  responsible 
for  the  work  of  the  probation  officers  should  be  elected 
a  County  ^Commissioner  in  order  that  she  might  con- 
tinue the  good  work  which  put  the  Chicago  Court  in 
advance  of  all  the  juvenile  courts  of  the  world,  would 
have  been  received  with  horror;  and  this  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  soon  after  the  county  assumed  the  obligation 
of  the  probation  officers  the  Commissioners  were  so 
bungUng  in  their  management — discharging  good  offi- 
cers in  order  to  fill  their  vacancies  with  men  and  women 
who  had  political  "pull" — that  the  efficiency  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  seriously  deteriorated. 

To  illustrate  from  the  state:  over  and  over  again 
IlHnois  women  collected  data  for  child  labor  legisla- 
tion, making  a  study  of  the  children  who  worked  in  the 
stock  yards,  in  box  factories  and  sweat  shops  of 
Chicago.  These  women  plead  with  one  session  of  the 
legislature  after  another  for  adequate  laws  to  protect 


206  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

such  children  from  the  premature  toil  which  was  so 
surely  fatal  to  the  future  citizenship  of  the  state.  It 
required  fifteen  years  of  unremitting  effort  to  secure 
our  present  Child  Labor  Law  and  even  now  the  women 
are  obhged  to  defend  it  at  every  session  of  the  legis- 
lature, when  special  interests  such  as  the  stage,  the 
canneries  and  the  glass  factories,  continue  to  make  at- 
tacks upon  it.  Any  suggestion  that  these  women,  who 
are  actively  interested  in  the  children  of  working  people 
and  informed  as  to  their  needs,  should  cast  a  vote 
for  the  legislators  upon  whom  the  responsibility  for 
such  protective  legislation  is  placed,  was  long  consid- 
ered utterly  preposterous!  They  may  work  for  child 
labor  legislation,  which  means  the  collecting  of  endless 
data,  they  may  make  speeches  throughout  the  state, 
lobby  at  the  capitol  during  dreary  weeks,  but  they 
must  not  vote  for  it!  They  may  persuade  reluctant 
legislators  but  they  must  not  cast  a  ballot  for  them ! 

Public-spirited  women  in  a  hundred  different  di- 
rections are  employed  at  the  present  moment  carrying 
on  philanthropic  activities  in  which  they  are  permitted 
to  engage  and  for  which  they  are  highly  commended 
by  men.  When,  however,  these  seK-same  activities  are 
carried  on  by  officials  who  must  be  elected  by  the 
voter,  women  are  excluded  from  participation  be- 
cause the  same  activities  are  no  longer  considered 
philanthropies  but  politics. 


NEED   OF   FURTHER  PROTECTIOIT  207 

Women  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  pubKc 
affairs  naturally  resent  having  the  door  shut  in  their 
faces  when  the  work  they  have  initiated  and  long 
maintained  is  taken  over  into  the  halls  of  state,  but 
this  is  what  happens  so  long  as  they  are  deprived  of 
the  franchise.  And  if  women  are  to  continue  their 
work  for  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  insane,  the  aged  and 
the  children,  they  must  have  some  assurance  that  the 
work  to  which  they  have  given  the  best  years  of  their 
lives  will  not  be  cast  into  the  jackpot  of  political 
spoils  when  it  is  taken  over  by  the  government. 

There  are  certain  aspects  of  city  life  in  which  the 
woman  voter  will  be  inevitably  interested.  Statistics 
tell  us  that  one  baby  out  of  every  five  dies  before  it  is 
one  year  of  age.  Why  is  there  such  mortality?  Why 
is  it  three  times  greater,  for  example,  in  the  congested 
nineteenth  ward  of  Chicago  than  on  the  Lake  Shore 
Drive?  One  reason  is  that  the  milk  is  bad  and  the 
foreign  women  are  not  used  to  our  ways.  In  the  old 
country  they  have  been  accustomed  to  have  the  goats 
or  cows  milked  before  their  doors  so  that  they  knew 
the  milk  was  fresh,  but  in  this  country  it  is  very  dif- 
ferent. They  do  not  know  the  best  milkmen;  they  are 
obhged  to  buy  from  the  corner  grocery  where  milk 
teeming  with  bacteria  is  too  often  sold  to  them.  We 
cannot  always  teach  them  where  to  buy,  we  cannot 
serve  them  all  with  good  milk  nor  can  we  properly 


208  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

take  care  of  all  the  babies  made  sick  by  bad  milk, 
but  we  can  have  laws  which  shall  require  that  the 
dairy  farms,  not  only  of  Illinois  but  of  Wisconsin, 
Indiana  and  Michigan,  shall  be  properly  inspected. 

A  short  time  ago  there  was  no  appropriation  for  the 
inspection  of  these  farms  and  from  a  preliminary  study 
it  was  estimated  that  10,000  tubercular  cows  were 
supplying  the  city  of  Chicago  with  milk.  If  we  had 
a  few  women  sitting  as  aldermen,  perhaps  they  would 
pass  ordinances  which  would  prohibit  the  sale  of  milk 
in  Chicago  from  farms  which  had  not  been  properly 
inspected,  for  they  would  appreciate  more  keenly  than 
men,  the  necessity  of  clean  milk  for  babies. 

Of  a  certain  Chicago  ward,  it  is  said  that  one  baby 
dies  out  of  every  three  bom  because  that  ward,  owing 
to  the  antiquated  way  the  dty  disposes  of  its  garbage, 
is  made  a  breeding  place  for  disease,  and  the  flies  carry 
it  to  the  innocent  and  helpless  children.  If  a  woman 
insists  that  her  own  garbage  be  dispx)sed  of  in  a  proper 
way,  would  she  not,  if  she  had  anything  to  do  with  city 
government,  insist  that  the  dty  waste  be  so  scientific- 
ally disposed  of,  that  all  children  in  the  dty  might 
be  protected  from  disease  and  death.  In  Chicago 
where  a  spedal  commission  has  been  appointed  to 
provide  for  the  adequate  disposal  of  the  dty  waste, 
the  new  women  voters  have  had  an  opportunity  to 
take  hold  of  this  vexed  question  most  vigorously. 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION       209 

Organizations  like  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion are  anticipating  much  help  from  the  women's 
vote  in  Chicago,  in  securing  both  the  legal  regulations 
protecting  children  and  young  people  who  have  fallen 
into  difficulties,  and  those  amehorating  the  vicious 
environment  which  threatens  the  welfare  of  others. 

Out  of  our  knowledge  of  general  conditions  and  in 
connection  with  the  six  thousand  cases  we  annually 
care  for,  have  come  certain  impressions  regarding  the 
inadequacy  of  many  of  the  state  laws  and  municipal 
ordinances.  The  conviction  has  been  forced  upon  us 
that  some  of  them  must  be  amended  if  we  would 
afford  protection  to  women  and  children  sufficient 
even  to  conserve  their  health  and  their  virtue.  In 
almost  every  case  the  laws  concerned  are  those  in 
which  women  are  specially  interested. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  in  its  dealing 
with  children  constantly  sees  the  need  of  a  uniform 
state  birth  registration  law.  We  know  how  many 
immigrants  land  in  our  country  each  year;  we  know 
their  age,  sex,  nationality  and  destination;  we  even 
know  how  much  money  each  one  brings,  but  we  do  not 
know  how  many  children  enter  our  states  each  year 
through  birth.  It  is  estimated  that  300,000  children 
under  one  year  of  age  die  annually  in  this  country- 
measured  in  terms  of  total  population  it  is  as  if  every 
ten  years,  every  person  in  Chicago  were  swept  out  of 


2IO  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

existence.  A  large  number  of  these  300,000  deaths 
are  preventable,  for  we  are  told  that ''  public  health  is 
purchasable,"  and  that  "a  community  can  determine 
its  own  death  rate."  The  lives  of  babies  can  doubtless 
be  conserved  through  effective  legislation,  which  can 
be  intelh'gently  enacted  only  when  based  upon  public 
records  showing  when  and  where  and  under  what  con- 
ditions children  are  bom,  and  the  causes  responsible 
for  an  excessive  death  rate.  Without  such  records  it  is 
impossible  to  set  in  motion  the  machinery  which  will 
check  this  useless  sacrifice  of  infant  life.  The  Federal 
Children's  Bureau  is  constantly  urging  that  uniform 
birth  registration  laws  be  adopted  by  all  the  states  in 
the  union. 

It  is  possible  to  illustrate  the  usefulness  of  the 
women's  vote  in  the  further  advance  of  compulsory 
education  and  child  labor  legislation  so  much  needed 
in  Ilhnois.  Our  present  law  should  be  amended  at 
many  points  at  which  for  the  past  few  years  it  has 
failed  to  serve  the  best  interests  of  the  children.  The 
age  at  which  the  boy  or  girl  may  begin  to  work  should 
be  raised.  Ohio  has  fixed  the  age  for  girls  at  16  years 
and  for  boys  at  15  years.  Reports  from  all  sources 
indicate  that  where  children  are  allowed  to  work  be- 
tween the  ages  of  14  and  16  these  two  years  are  wasted, 
and  this  misuse  of  boy  and  girl  labor  is  one  of  the  most 
prolific  causes  of  poverty.    Because  these  children, 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  211 

having  no  preparation  for  work,  are  restless  and  im- 
patient, it  is  found  that  in  the  first  year  after  entering 
industry  they  sometimes  hold  half  a  dozen  or  more 
positions,  continually  changing  from  one  place  to  an- 
other. The  person  authorized  to  issue  employment 
certificates  should  be  obhged  to  examine,  approve,  and 
file  a  certificate  signed  by  a  physician  ofiicially  ap- 
pointed for  this  work,  stating  that  the  child  holding 
the  employment  certificate  has  been  examined  by  the 
physician  and  has  reached  the  normal  development  of 
a  child  of  his  age,  is  sound  physically  and  mentally  and 
fit  to  work  in  any  occupation  in  which  a  child  be- 
tween 14  and  16  years  of  age  may  be  legally  em- 
ployed. . 

Again,  we  should  require  that  the  child  stay  in 
school  until  he  has  found  a  job.  Our  law  provides 
that  he  must  go  to  a  school  between  the  ages  of  14  and 
16  years,  unless  he  is  lawfully  and  necessarily  em- 
ployed. But  this  is  difficult  to  enforce.  He  should  be 
kept  in  school  until  he  has  found  a  position  which 
should  be  secured  through  an  extension  of  the  Voca- 
tional Bureau  already  established  by  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Education. 

Our  Child  Labor  Law  provides  that  school  certifi- 
cates shall  certify  that  the  child  can  read  and  write 
legibly  simple  sentences,  altho  these  are  not  required 
to  be  in  the  EngUsh  language;  that  when  a  minor  can- 


212  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

not  do  this,  it  shall  certify  that  he  or  she  is  regularly 
attending  a  public  or  private  evening  school. 

The  provision  as  to  abiUty  to  read  and  write  simple 
sentences  in  some  language  is  practically  unenforce- 
able. A  large  number  of  public  school  principals  un- 
doubtedly refuse  certificates  to  children  in  the  lowest 
grades  who  can  by  pressure  be  kept  in  school  longer; 
but  others  allow  any  child  who  asks  for  a  certificate 
after  his  fourteenth  birthday  to  leave  school,  no  matter 
what  his  grade.  Figures  compiled  by  the  Age  and 
School  Certificate  Bureau  for  191 2  show  that  age  and 
school  certificates  from  the  Chicago  public  schools 
were  granted  to  27  children  who  were  only  in  the 
first  grade,  67  in  the  second  grade,  and  259  in  the 
third  grade.  While  it  is  possible  that  some  of  these 
children  were  immigrants  who  had  some  education 
before  they  came  to  this  country  and  could  "read  and 
write  simple  sentences"  in  some  other  language,  the 
majority  unquestionably  will  be  illiterate  men  and 
women. 

The  provision  in  the  law  that  illiterate  children  who 
are  not  granted  certificates  must  attend  evening 
school  is  not  well  enforced.  There  seems  to  be  no 
means  of  following  them  up  after  they  have  been 
given  certificates  to  find  out  whether  or  not  they 
attend  evening  school.  Our  Illinois  law  should  be 
more  specific  and  should  provide,  as  does  the  New 


NEED   OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  213 

York  law,  that  children  shall  have  completed  at  least 
the  sixth  grade  before  they  are  allowed  to  enter  in- 
dustry. 

Again,  the  provision  which  prescribes  an  eight- 
hour  day  for  children  between  14  and  16  years  of  age, 
and  prohibits  work  at  dangerous  machinery  is  fre- 
quently evaded,  and  any  child  who  is  large  for  his  age 
can  easily  get  a  position  by  asserting  that  he  is  sixteen 
years  old.  A  better  method  should  be  devised  for 
enforcing  the  eight-hour  law  for  children  between 
14  and  16  years  of  age.  There  are  many  cases  of 
violation  of  this  provision,  the  most  flagrant  being 
those  of  errand  boys  sent  by  their  employers  on  long 
errands  perhaps  fifteen  minutes  before  the  closing 
hour.  The  boy  may  need  one  or  two  hours  for  the 
errand  and  have  a  long  distance  to  go  home  after- 
wards. Boys  are  also  frequently  told  to  deliver 
parcels  on  the  way  home  and  the  place  of  delivery  is 
very  often  far  from  the  boy's  lodging.  If  the  hours 
of  work  were  absolutely  fixed  and  the  working  day 
for  children  between  14  and  16  years  of  age  definitely 
placed,  as  in  New  York,  between  the  hours  of  eight 
and  five  o'clock,  it  would  be  much  easier  to  control 
the  enforcement  of  the  eight-hour  provision. 

We  should  have  a  school  for  girls  who  are  persistent 
truants,  for  at  present  there  is  no  place  to  which  such 
girls  may  be  sent,  and  we  should  devise  a  system  of 


214  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

transfers  from  one  school  to  another,  that  a  child  may 
not  be  lost  sight  of  so  easily  as  he  is  now.  We  should 
require  that  a  child  entered  at  one  school  must  remain 
there  until  the  end  of  the  term,  even  although  he 
becomes  14  years  of  age  and  is  eager  to  go  to  work. 

We  should  have  visiting  teachers  to  go  to  the  homes 
of  children  as  interpreters  between  family  and  public 
school.  Sometimes  a  bright  child  will  not  do  well  in 
school;  the  teacher,  unacquainted  with  the  family, 
may  be  ignorant  of  the  cause  of  his  slowness.  A  visit 
to  the  home  may  reveal  the  fact  that  the  child  is  kept 
up  too  late  at  night  or  is  put  at  some  occupation 
which  deprives  him  of  the  proper  amount  of  sleep,  or 
there  may  be  some  other  contributing  cause.  I  recall 
one  boy  who  was  made  to  do  the  family  washing 
every  evening  and  naturally  did  not  do  well  in  school; 
another  boy  who  was  bright  and  energetic  went  to 
sleep  every  afternoon  over  his  desk.  It  was  finally 
discovered  that  he  had  been  put  by  his  father  to 
help  in  a  saloon  at  the  noon  hour,  a  service  for 
which  he  was  given  a  luncheon,  of  beer  and  dry 
bread. 

The  principals  have  power  to  excuse  children  from 
school,  not  only  for  physical  ills  but  for  mental 
incapacity.  Many  times  a  child  is  excused  because 
he  seems  too  weak  to  go  to  school  but,  as  he  is  never 
followed  up,  he  is  often  considered  by  his  parents 


NEED   OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  215 

Strong  enough  to  go  to  work.  Such  children  should  be 
under  the  observation  of  school  nurses. 

It  has  been,  however,  extremely  difficult  for  women 
without  the  vote  to  secure  legislation  fitted  with  any 
detail  and  nicety  to  the  needs  of  children.  This 
difficulty  may  be  illustrated  by  the  efforts  of  Chicago 
women,  extending  over  a  decade,  to  secure  legal 
protection  for  children  engaged  in  street  trades. 

A  serious  defect  in  the  Illinois  Child  Labor  Law  is 
the  lack  of  protection  for  children  who,  because  they 
are  defined  as  "  merchants,"  are  therefore  permitted  to 
sell  gum,  merchandise,  candy  or  newspapers  upon  the 
streets  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night.  In  several 
instances  children  have  even  been  allowed  to  act  upon 
the  stage  when  they  could  prove  that  they  were 
stockholders  in  the  company  and  therefore,  in  a  sense, 
not  employed. 

For  many  years  the  Consumers'  League  of  Illinois 
made  unremitting  efforts  to  induce  the  legislature  to 
extend  the  provisions  of  the  Child  Labor  Law  to  the 
children  on  the  streets.  All  such  efforts  were  defeated 
largely  by  those  who  claimed  that  in  removing  the 
children  from  the  streets,  we  were  taking  the  support 
from  many  widowed  mothers  absolutely  dependent 
upon  their  children's  help.  To  ascertain  the  facts  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  had  its  officers  follow 
home  86  children  who  were  found  selling  on  the  streets 


2l6  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

and  out  of  this  number  it  was  learned  that,  only  in 
six  cases,  was  the  money  earned  necessary  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  families.  Many  of  the  people  whose  chil- 
dren were  thus  acting  as  "merchants"  were  pros- 
perous, some  of  them  owned  their  own  houses, 
and  one  father  had  seven  thousand  dollars  in  the 
bank. 

Investigation  also  made  clear  the  evil  effects  of 
street  trading  upon  children.  Physically  it  is  bad  for 
the  child  because  of  excessive  fatigue,  exposure  to 
bad  weather,  loss  of  sleep  and  irregularity  of  meals. 
Morally  it  is.  bad  because  of  the  encouragement  to 
truancy,  it  induces  defiance  of  parental  control, 
creates  a  liking  for  the  excitement  of  the  streets,  and 
makes  children  acquainted  with  all  aspects  of  crime. 
Economically  it  is  bad  because  it  results  in  a  distaste 
for  regular  employment,  it  allows  small  chance  of 
acquiring  a  trade  and  it  permits  the  child  to  drift  into 
the  large  class  of  casual  laborers.  We  have  many 
cases  on  record  where  little  girls  who  have  sold  news- 
papers in  saloons  or  gum  in  the  segregated  districts 
have  become  so  familiar  with  the  life  of  the  underworld 
that  they  have  lost  their  standards  and  become  in- 
mates of  disreputable  houses  at  a  very  early  age.  We 
also  have  on  record  many  cases  of  boys  who,  through 
their  work  as  newsboys  or  messengers,  have  become 
acquainted  with  the  inmates  of  houses  of  prostitution 


NEED   OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  217 

and  have  in  this  way  contracted  diseases  or  become 
depraved  through  such  acquaintances. 

As  we  were  unable  through  the  legislature  to  obtain 
an  amendment  to  the  state  Child  Labor  Law,  a  vigor- 
ous attempt  was  made  by  the  Juvenile  Protective  As- 
sociation to  secure  a  city  ordinance  which  should  pro- 
tect street  children.  For  several  years  our  efforts  were 
frustrated  through  the  influence  of  the  newspapers, 
although  one  conference  after  another  was  held  with 
the  managing  editors  of  the  great  dailies  to  induce 
them  to  give  up  the  employment  of  children,  at  least 
those  who  were  under  twelve  years  of  age.  With  one 
exception,  the  great  journals  of  Chicago,  at  that  time, 
did  not  feel  that  they  could  run  their  business  without 
the  help  of  these  small  children.  I  vividly  recall  a 
dinner  given  by  Miss  Jane  Addams  and  myself  at  a 
downtown  hotel  to  the  managers  and  circulating 
editors  of  the  great  dailies  in  Chicago.  From  six 
o'clock  until  midnight  the  subject  of  the  newsboy  was 
vigorously  discussed.  Most  of  the  men  seemed  reason- 
able on  the  subject,  but  one  circulation  manager  be- 
came so  truculent  at  any  sign  of  yielding  on  the  part  of 
his  colleagues,  that  the  subject  was  finally  left  in  the 
most  unsettled  and  unsatisfactory  condition.  As  we 
came  out  of  the  hotel  at  quarter  to  one,  we  ahnost  ran 
over  a  very  small  boy  carrying  on  his  bent  shoulders  a 
great  bundle  of  newspapers.    In  reply  to  the  obvious 


2l8  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

remark  that  here  was  a  refutation  of  their  assertions 
that  practically  no  papers  were  sold  on  the  street  after 
ten  o'clock  at  night,  the  newspaper  men  calmly  re- 
plied, "Oh,  of  course,  the  bulldog  edition  must  be 
taken  care  of." 

The  Association  gathered  a  great  deal  of  material 
on  the  subject  which,  however,  was  printed  by  only 
one  newspaper,  to  the  effect  that  a  recent  report  of 
the  United  States  Government  on  Juvenile  Delin- 
quency in  its  Relation  to  Employment  states  that  a 
very  large  percentage  (23.81%)  of  delinquents  are 
children  who  have  been  engaged  in  street  trades. 
This  is  borne  out  by  the  records  of  all  the  reforma- 
tories in  the  country.  In  New  York,  for  example: 
at  one  time  in  the  Hart's  Island  Reformatory  63  per 
cent  of  the  inmates  had  been  newsboys:  in  the  Cath- 
olic Protectory,  40  per  cent  had  been  newsboys;  in  the 
House  of  Refuge  30  per  cent  of  the  younger  boys  had 
been  engaged  in  this  occupation  and  at  Randall's 
Island,  70  per  cent  of  the  older  boys  had  been  news- 
boys. At  Glenns  Mill,  Pennsylvania — a  large  reform 
school — the  percentage  is  even  higher,  being  77  per 
cent.  The  Association  continually  pointed  out  that 
Chicago  was  far  behind  other  great  cities  in  the  pro- 
tection of  its  street  children.  In  England  there  have 
been  laws  regulating  the  employment  of  children  on 
the  street  for  thirteen  years;  and  in  this  country  in 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION 


219 


New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  St. 
Louis,  San  Francisco,  Milwaukee  and  other  cities  there 
are  either  state  laws  or  municipal  ordinances.  When 
through  the  cooperation  of  many  public-spirited  so- 
cieties, the  aldermen  were  finally  convinced  that  their 
constituents  were  demanding  some  regulation  as  to 
the  hours  and  ages  of  children  on  the  streets,  a  final 
interview  held  with  the  mayor,  the  representatives  of 
the  newspapers  and  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion resulted  in  the  passage  of  a  city  ordinance  which 
went  into  effect  July,  191 2.  This  provides  that  no 
boy  under  fourteen  years  of  age  shall  sell  upon  the 
streets  after  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  or  before  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  that  no  girl  under  eight- 
een years  of  age  shall  sell  anything  at  any  time  upon 
the  streets.  This  ordinance,  however,  was  at  first  so 
poorly  enforced  that  the  executive  of  the  city  finally 
gave  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  the  services 
of  two  policemen  whose  sole  business  it  was  to  enforce 
it.  Largely  through  their  efforts  and  through  coopera- 
tion with  all  the  philanthropic  agencies  whose  officers 
are  much  upon  the  streets,  the  desired  result  was  fi- 
nally accomplished. 

There  is  still,  however,  a  lack  of  adequate  protec- 
tion for  messenger  boys.  An  investigation  disclosed 
approximately  1,100  messenger  boys  employed  by  the 
two  leading  telegraph  companies  in  Chicago.     One 


220  SAFEGUARDS   FOR   CITY  YOUTH 

company  made  an  effort  to  safeguard  the  boys,  to 
provide  them  with  occasional  recreation  and  with  an 
opportunity  to  study  telegraphy.  This  company  did 
not  permit  any  boy  under  i6  to  deliver  messages 
to  a  questionable  resort  or  answer  a  call  coming 
from  a  saloon.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  boys 
over  i6  are  even  more  susceptible  to  such  evil  in- 
fluences. 

According  to  the  statement  of  a  manager  of  one 
large  company,  the  average  time  messengers  remain 
in  the  service  is  less  than  two  months.  Many  resign 
after  two  or  three  weeks,  and  some  of  them  after  the 
first  pay  day.  The  investigator  found  the  home  condi- 
tions of  at  least  7  boys  out  of  every  10,  discouraging 
and  depressing.  Ninety  per  cent  of  the  messenger 
service  in  Chicago  at  the  time  of  the  investigation 
was  recruited  from  foreign  families.  The  average 
age  of  the  telegraph  and  messenger  boys  was  slightly 
under  fifteen  years.  Following  the  examples  set  by 
New  York,  other  states  should  forbid  boys  under  21 
years  of  age  to  act  as  night  messengers.  Until  this  is 
done  we  must  expect  that  those  whose  business  keeps 
them  constantly  on  the  street  will  continue  to  swell 
the  ranks  of  the  delinquents. 

At  the  present  moment  many  women  are  much 
concerned  for  a  better  supervision  of  employment 
agencies.     It  is    not   uncommon    for   employment 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  221 

bureaus  to  send  women  as  domestic  servants  to  dis- 
reputable houses.  Only  recently  a  young  colored 
girl  came  to  the  Association  and  said  that  she  had 
made  application  at  such  an  agency  for  the  position 
of  lady's  maid.  She  was  told  that  the  employment 
bureau  had  no  such  position,  but  that  she  could  be 
sent  as  maid  into  a  "sporting''  house.  She  objected 
at  first  to  going  there  but  was  told  that  the  wages  were 
high  and  the  work  light,  and  she  was  strongly  urged 
to  take  the  position.  If  such  employment  agencies 
could  be  regularly  inspected,  and  if  the  law  were  en- 
forced requiring  them  to  give  the  names  of  girls  for 
whom  they  had  found  employment  and  of  the  places 
to  which  the  girls  had  been  sent,  no  doubt  a  large 
number  of  young  women  would  be  protected.  The 
State  Employment  Bureaus,  of  which  we  have  three 
in  Illinois,  are  all  poorly  equipped  and  compete  against 
one  another.  We  should  have  one  good  State  Em- 
ployment Bureau  which  should  be  well  equipped  to 
compete  with  private  agencies.  There  should  be  a  Ju- 
venile Department  with  a  trained  person  at  the  head 
to  cooperate  with  the  Board  of  Education  Vocational 
Bureau,  and  this  department  should  also  be  author- 
ized to  cooperate  with  similar  agencies  in  other  states. 
All  such  improvements  in  existing  agencies  should  be 
urged  until  such  time  as  the  United  States  establishes 
a  thorough  system  of  Labor  Exchanges,  such  as  are 


222  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

already  well  under  way  in  England  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent. 

Our  Illinois  law  regulating  the  loaning  of  money 
provides  that  loan  agents  shall  not  charge  more  than 
7%  interest,  and  yet  we  find  in  Chicago,  as  well  as  in 
all  other  large  cities,  hundreds  of  loan  sharks  who 
demand  not  only  their  legal  rate  of  7%,  but  often 
exact  an  interest  rate  of  120%  per  year.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  stop  this  practice  as  there  is  no  pen- 
alty for  charging  an  exorbitant  rate  save  that  the  agent 
can  be  made  to  lose  his  interest  and  be  repaid  only  his 
principal.  It  is,  therefore,  a  gamble  on  his  part  as  he 
may  win  a  very  large  sum  and,  if  he  loses,  it  is  only 
his  interest  and  not  his  principal.  The  game,  there- 
fore, is  one  frequently  played  by  imscrupulous  men 
and  sometimes  by  women,  who  prey  upon  the  credul- 
ity and  fears  of  their  victims.  The  last  legislature 
enacted  a  law  which  provides  that  corporations  may 
be  organized  with  a  capital  of  not  less  than  $25,000 
in  all  cities  for  the  purpose  of  lending  money  on  wage 
assignments,  but  in  no  case  shall  the  amount  loaned 
to  one  person  exceed  the  sum  of  $250.00.  Another 
section  of  this  act  provides  that  such  corporations 
may  lend  money  and  take  and  hold  as  security  for  the 
payment  of  the  same  an  assignment  of  the  wages  of 
the  borrower,  and  may  charge  and  collect  not  to 
exceed  3%  per  month  as  interest  or  compensation 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  223 

for  the  use  of  such  money.    No  further  charge  of  any 
kind  whatsoever  or  upon  any  pretext  shall  be  made. 

Recently  a  young  girl  came  to  the  notice  of  the 
Association  who  was  employed  as  a  stenographer  in 
a  reputable  firm.  She  had  had  illness  in  her  family 
and,  in  order  to  pay  the  doctor  and  nurses  borrowed 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  from  a  loan  agent,  agree- 
ing to  repay  the  amount  with  interest  at  the  rate  of 
10%  per  month,  or  120%  a  year.  She  kept  up  this 
payment  for  several  months,  and  then  because  one 
month  she  was  not  able  to  furnish  the  required  sum  the 
threat  was  made  that  her  employers  would  be  told  and 
that  she  would  be  arrested  and  imprisoned.  When  she 
appHed  for  help  to  the  Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion she  had  already  paid  $107.00  in  interest  alone, 
and  it  was  only  through  our  intervention  that  the  pay- 
ment of  an  additional  $43.00  cancelled  her  indebted- 
ness. Nothing,  however,  could  be  done  to  punish  the 
loan  shark  who  is  still  in  business  exploiting  victims. 

We  need  in  Chicago  some  sort  of  Federal  regulation 
which  shall  provide  for  the  large  number  of  young 
immigrant  girls  who  come  to  this  country  and  for 
whom  government  responsibility  ceases  when  they 
leave  Ellis  Island.  They  should  be  put  upon  the 
railroad  train  under  the  care  of  some  official  instead 
of  being  left,  as  at  present,  to  the  mercy  of  any  white 
slave  trader  who  may  board  the  train,  and  can  induce 


224  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

the  girl  to  leave  it,  or  of  the  expressman  who  takes 
the  unprotected  immigrant  and  her  luggage,  whether 
she  will  or  no,  to  any  place  he  chooses.  The  Immi- 
grants' Protective  League  has  many  such  sad  cases 
upon  its  records.  A  new  Federal  station  for  immi- 
grants will  soon  be  opened  in  Chicago,  and  all  immi- 
grants arriving  at  the  different  railroad  stations  will  be 
taken  care  of  at  this  central  point  and  kept  until  their 
friends  can  be  communicated  with. 

The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  also  sees  the 
inadequacy  of  many  laws  affecting  even  graver  mat- 
ters, such  as  the  age  of  consent.  By  our  statutes  a 
girl  becomes  legally  of  age  when  she  is  eighteen  years 
old,  and  until  that  time  we  do  not  give  her  the  right  to 
dispose  of  her  property,  but  we  fix  sixteen — two  years 
earlier — as  the  age  when  she  may  consent  to  her  own 
ruin.  In  seven  states  this  age  of  consent  is  eighteen 
years;  in  others  it  is  fourteen  years;  in  several  it  is  as 
low  as  ten  years.  Certainly  legislation  raising  the 
age  of  consent  would  secure  the  cooperation  of  all 
right-minded  women  voters. 

One  of  the  saddest  incidents  in  the  records  of  the 
Juvenile  Protective  Association  is  the  following  story 
of  a  young  Bohemian  girl,  betrayed  by  her  employer, 
for  whom  she  had  worked  for  a  year.  After  he  had 
urged  her  in  vain  to  make  away  with  her  unborn  child 
he  turned  her  out  of  doors  and  for  months  she  strug- 


NEED   OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION  225 

gled  to  support  herself  honestly.  At  the  moment  of 
her  confinement  she  was  staying  in  the  house  of  a 
friend,  and  one  morning  when  the  family  were  all 
away  at  work  and  the  girl  was  alone  in  the  house,  the 
baby  was  born.  The  frightened  girl,  wishing  to  take 
the  baby  to  its  father  but  fearing  to  be  seen  leaving 
the  house  with  it,  wrapped  it  up  in  one  of  her  skirts 
and  placed  it  on  the  sill  of  the  open  window  of  the 
first  floor  flat.  When  she  went  outside  to  get  the  child 
she  found  that  it  had  fallen  off  the  window  sill  into 
the  snow.  Half  crazed  by  her  experience  and  not 
knowing  whether  or  not  the  child  was  dead,  or  even 
whether  it  had  been  born  alive,  she  took  it  in  her  arms 
and  left  it  at  the  door  of  its  father's  house.  As  she 
left  the  flat  she  was  seen  by  some  boys;  they  followed 
her  and  on  their  evidence  she  was  arrested  and  charged 
with  murder. 

Such  an  outcome  would  be  impossible  if  we  had  a 
state  law  similar  to  the  law  in  Norway  which  provides 
that  the  father  of  an  illegitimate  child  must  pay  for 
the  care  of  the  mother  before  and  after  childbirth; 
also  that  he  must  give  her  a  portion  of  his  wages  to 
keep  both  mother  and  child  decently.  This  Norwe- 
gian law  further  provides  that  if  several  men  are  im- 
plicated in  a  girl's  downfall  and  if  the  paternity  of  the 
child  is  therefore  doubtful,  all  the  men  involved  are 
taxed  for  the  support  of  the  child. 


226  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

From  dealing  with  many  cases  the  Juvenile  Pro- 
tective Association  has  become  convinced  that  an 
amendment  to  our  Marriage  Law  should  provide  for 
a  period  of  ten  days  or  two  weeks  between  the  issuing 
of  the  marriage  license  and  the  performance  of  the 
ceremony.  The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  has 
had  several  cases  involving  a  boy  and  girl  who  had 
hastily  taken  out  a  license  and  had  been  married  at 
once.  If  some  time  had  elapsed  between  the  taking 
out  of  the  license  and  the  performance  of  the  ceremony 
their  parents  and  guardians  would  have  known  of  their 
intentions  through  the  publication  of  the  Hcenses  and 
would  have  been  able  to  interfere,  while  in  other  cases 
the  young  people  themselves  would  have  recon- 
sidered. The  girl  should  be  required  to  appear  in 
person  to  testify  to  her  own  age  when  application  is 
made  for  a  marriage  license,  as  is  the  law  in  New  York. 

Some  time  ago  a  young  couple  appeared  at  the 
office  of  the  Juvenile  Protective  Association  and  told 
a  pathetic  story  of  poverty  and  incompatibility.  The 
man  had  been  out  of  work  since  his  marriage;  he  was 
in  poor  health  and  unable  to  support  his  wife  and 
child.  It  appeared  that  in  the  previous  year,  the 
girl — then  only  seventeen  years  of  age — had  taken  a 
walk  one  day  with  the  boy  who  afterwards  became 
her  husband.  In  a  spirit  of  bravado  the  boy  asked  the 
girl  to  marry  him.    She  replied  that  she  would  but 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION 


227 


that  his  collar  was  too  dirty.  He  then  said  that  he 
wotdd  see  if  he  had  enough  money  to  buy  a  new  one 
and,  counting  up,  found  that  he  had  enough  for  the 
marriage  Hcense  and  the  justice's  fee  and  would  then 
have  just  five  cents  left.  With  this  he  bought  a  clean 
collar,  which  he  immediately  donned,  the  couple 
secured  a  license  and  were  married  only  to  bitterly 
repent  their  rash  act  in  a  few  days. 

Women  and  children  undoubtedly  would  be  helped 
by  a  state  law  which  should  require  not  only  a  mar- 
riage hcense  but  a  medical  certificate  showing  that 
the  contracting  parties  were  free  from  disease.  By 
this  means  thousands  of  children  would  be  protected, 
for  insanity,  a  high  infant  mortaUty  and  a  large  pro- 
portion of  bUndness  at  birth  are  caused  by  com- 
municable diseases  from  which  women  and  children 
are  the  innocent  sufferers.  One  of  the  most  pathetic 
sights  in  Chicago  is  the  venereal  disease  ward  for 
children  in  the  County  Hospital.  In  twenty-seven 
months,  600  children  under  twelve  years  of  age  passed 
through  this  ward — 60%  of  them  had  contracted  the 
disease  accidentally;  20%  of  them  had  inherited  it 
and  another  20%  had  been  criminally  assaulted  by 
diseased  persons. 

A  state  law  in  Illinois  at  present  provides  that  no 
hotel  shall  harbor  a  girl  under  eighteen  years  of  age 
who  is  unaccompanied  by  parent  or  guardian  and  that 


228  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

any  agent  or  hotel  keeper  who  permits  girls  under 
eighteen  years  to  remain  in  a  house  where  prostitu- 
tion is  permitted  shall  be  liable  to  arrest.  The  owner, 
however,  can  be  held  only  if  it  can  be  shown  that  he 
had  personal  knowledge  that  the  girl  was  allowed  in 
the  hotel  by  his  employees.  The  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  has  many  cases  on  record  of  young  girls 
who  have  gone  to  such  hotels.  In  one  case,  where  the 
rule  of  the  hotel  was  that  the  couple  should  have  some 
baggage,  a  large  number  of  suit  cases  were  kept  in  a 
neighboring  room  in  order  that  they  might  be  lent 
to.  boys  and  girls  applying  for  admission  to  the  hotel, 
thus  keeping  within  the  rule. 

Fourteen  nations  of  the  civilized  world  have  pro- 
hibited all-night  work  for  women  employed  in  manu- 
facture, but  the  United  States  lags  far  behind  in  this 
respect.  Physicians  and  economists  have  found  that 
night  work  for  women,  with  its  loss  of  sleep  and  sun- 
light, is  dangerous  to  health  and  militates  against 
morals,  necessitating  the  woman's  enforced  absence 
from  home  in  the  evening — the  only  time  when 
the  wage-earning  family  can  be  together.  Industrial 
overstrain,  for  which  this  abnormal  night  work  is 
responsible,  frequently  results  in  a  **  lessened  birth- 
rate, a  heightened  infant  mortality  and  an  impaired 
second  generation." 

Night  work  for  women  in  factories  is  prohibited, 


NEED  OF  FURTHER  PROTECTION 


229 


and  a  fixed  evening  closing  hour  established  by  law 
in  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  Ne- 
braska, and  Indiana.  Illinois  has  not  only  no  law  of 
this  kind,  but  even  lacks  the  mercantile  half-holiday 
which  pubhc  sentiment  has  enforced  in  several  other 
states. 

Illinois  has  no  legal  provision  for  one  day's  rest  in 
seven  and  permits  a  ten-hour  day  and  a  seventy-hour 
week  for  women.  For  want  of  a  legal  closing  hour, 
factory  inspectors  find  it  difficult  to  discover  when 
the  ten-hour  law  is  violated.  Night  work  for  women 
should  be  prohibited  in  Illinois,  and  a  fifty-four  hour 
week  and  a  legal  closing  hour  established.  Every 
woman  needs  a  half -holiday  in  which  to  do  her  laundry 
work,  mending  and  shopping,  and  thus  be  able  to 
keep  Sunday  for  church,  for  the  parks,  and  for  her 
friends.  The  ten-hour  law  for  women  at  present 
operative  in  Illinois  should  be  amended  to  include 
the  above  features.  The  need  of  a  minimum  wage 
law  has  already  been  discussed  in  Chapter  III. 

There  are  many  other  suggestions  arising  from  our 
experience.  Certainly  the  woman  voter  has  always 
been  ready  to  defend  the  home  from  drunkenness  and 
her  cooperation  could  be  depended  upon  to  secure 
an  ordinance  making  it  unlawful  to  permit  minors 
under  sixteen  years  of  age  to  enter  or  remain  in  saloons 
or  dram  shops  and  for  minors  to  be  employed  to  sell 


230  SAFEGUARDS  FOR  CITY  YOUTH 

or  serve  intoxicating  liquors  in  any  place  whatso- 
ever. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Illinois  must  in  time  make 
more  adequate  provision  for  the  treatment  of  inebriety 
and  for  the  care  of  alcoholic  repeaters  by  the  establish- 
ment of  hospital  and  farm  colonies  so  arranged  that 
every  inebriate  will  receive  proper  treatment  and 
custodial  care,  as  is  planned  in  Massachusetts;  such 
as  (a)  a  hospital  colony  for  chronic  drunkards  who 
would  enter  voluntarily;  (b)  cases  committed  by 
judges  or  magistrates;  (c)  young  drunkards  placed 
by  the  court  on  probation  on  condition  that  they  spend 
their  probation  period  at  this  hospital;  and  (d)  a  de- 
tention colony  for  incurable  non-criminal  inebriates. 
^^  The  Juvenile  Protective  Association  of  Chicago  is 
\  confident  that  through  the  cooperation  of  the  womagij 
voters  in  Illinois,  intelligent  civic  action  will  be  se- 
cured, which  shall  do  away  with  many  wretched  con- 
ditions which  so  dearly  lead  to  the  immorality  of 
hundreds  of  young  people.  Only  by  careful  study  of 
existing  conditions  and  a  sympathetic  understanding 
of  individual  cases  can  we  hope  to  minimize  the  dan- 
gers at  present  menacing  children  and  young  people 
in  every  large  city.  .  ^ 


INDEX 


Abnormal  children,  percentage  of, 
among  those  brought  into  the 
Juvenile  Court,  96;  an  illus- 
trative case,  97-98. 

Adventure,  spirit  of,  in  boys,  as  a 
cause  of  delinquency,  94,  112, 
163-164. 

Advertisements  of  theatrical  pro- 
ductions, censorship  of,  recom- 
mended, 23. 

Age  of  consent,  need  of  raising, 
in  Illinois,  224. 

Ages  of  girls  involved  in  bastardy 
cases,  142. 

Amateur  nights  at  theatres,  argu- 
ment for  abolition  of,  23. 

Amusement  parks,  dangers  to 
young  people  from,  45-46; 
women  police  needed  at,  47. 

Amusements^  commercialized, 
12  ff. 

Argonauts  and  Orpheus,  a  lesson 
from  story  of,  50-51. 

Athletic  fields,  need  of  greater 
number  of,  49. 

B 

Bartelme,  Mary,  hearing  of  girls' 
cases  by,  in  Juvenile  Court, 
103. 


Bastardy  cases,  brought  into 
Court  of  Domestic  Relations, 
131;  disposal  of  babies  in,  131- 
^33i  134,  136;  number  of,  tried 
in  Court  of  Domestic  Rela- 
tions, 135;  results  of  study  of, 
by  Juvenile  Protective  Asso- 
ciation, 136  ff.;  conditions  lead- 
ing to,  136-138;  occupations  of 
mothers  of  girls  involved,  138; 
wages  of  girls,  140- 141;  ages  of 
girls  as  compared  with  those  of 
men,  142;  nativity  and  parent- 
age of  girls,  142;  treatment  of 
girls  by  parents  and  friends, 
142-143;  recreational  possibili- 
ties of  girls,  143-144;  the  men 
involved,  144-145;  places  of 
first  meeting  between  parties, 
145;  knowledge  of  girls  as  to 
consequences  of  their  act,  145- 
146;  ptmishment  of  men,  by 
imprisonment,  148-149;  court 
records  concerning  men,  150- 
152;  recommendations  as  to 
improved  treatment  of,  152. 

Bastardy  laws  in  Norway,  225. 

Bathing  beaches,  women  police 
needed  at,  47;  objection  to 
colored  children  at,  199. 

Bedford  Reformatory,  percent- 
age of  the  mentally  deficient 
among  inmates  of,  158-159. 


331 


232 


INDEX 


Birth  registration   law,  need   of 

a    uniform,    and    prospect    of 

securing       through      women's 

votes,  209-210. 
Box  factories,  wages  of  women 

workers  in,  89. 
Boys,  safeguarding  of,  when  new 

to  cities,  153-154- 
Boys'    Court,   estabUshment'  of, 

in  Chicago,  124. 
Business  colleges,  discrimination 

against    colored    students    in, 

173-174- 
Business  men  of  negro  race  in 

Chicago,  178-179. 


Candy,  raffling  for,  by  children, 

43-44. 

Candy  trades,  wages  of  women 
workers  in,  89. 

Capital  punishment  for  juvenile 
adults,  a  case  of,  107. 

Censorship  committee,  for  passing 
on  moving  picture  films,  16. 

Chewing-gum  slot  machines,  a 
form  of  gambling  device,  43. 

Chicago  Leather  Company,  ex- 
ploitation of  prisoners  by,  102. 

Child  labor  legislation,  part  taken 
by  women  in  securing,  205-206; 
advance  of,  to  be  secured  from 
voting  power  of  women,  210. 

Children,  in  Juvenile  Court,  Chi- 
cago, 2  S. ;  number  of,  who  may 
be  decently  provided  for  in 
American  families,  92;  treat- 
ment of,  by  Juvenile  Court, 
96;  number  who  have  p>assed 


through  Juvenile  Court,  96;  ex- 
amination of  dependent,  by  a 
medical  man,  96;  average  of, 
not  normal,  96-97;  indifferent 
attitude  of  many  parents 
toward,  108  fiF.;  cases  of  sub- 
normal, 124-127;  losing  of 
illegitimate,  131- 133;  high 
death  rate  among  illegitimate, 
135;  delinquency  among  immi- 
grants', 160-170;  needed  ad- 
vance in  labor  legislation  con- 
cerning, 210-213. 

Christmas  season  in  the  depart- 
ment stores,  63-64. 

Cigarette  selling  to  minors,  stop- 
ping of,  36. 

Cleveland,  regulation  of  dance 
halls  in,  35. 

Clinical  treatment,  of  Juvenile 
Court  cases,  98;  of  criminal 
women,  159. 

Clothing  trades,  wages  of  women 
workers  in,  89. 

Clubs,  for  giving  dances,  37.^^ 

Colored  people,  large  percentage 
of  jail  inmates  composed  of, 
170-171;  industrial  and  social 
status  of,  in  Chicago,  171  fiF.; 
early  liberal  policy  toward,  172- 
173;  present  tendency  to  em- 
ploy, only  as  laborers,  173;  dis- 
crimination against,  in  busi- 
ness colleges,  173-174;  reaction 
against  education  among,  174; 
discrimination  against,  in  labor 
unions,  174-175;  downward 
trend  of,  to  lower  kinds  of  occu- 
pation, 175;  refusal  of  great  cor- 
porations, department    stores, 


INDEX 


233 


express  companies,  etc.,  to  em- 
ploy, 176;  employment  of,  on 
Pullman  cars,  but  still  more 
in  saloons  and  poolrooms,  177; 
employment  of,  by  Federal  but 
not  by  local  government,  177- 
178;  conditions  as  to  colored 
men  in  business,  178-179;  large 
proportion  of  real  estate  dealers 
among  colored  men,  179-180; 
housing  conditions  among,  180- 
181;  residence  of,  near  vice  dis- 
tricts, and  resultant  dangers, 
181-182;  opposition  to  resi- 
dence of,  in  white  neighbor- 
hoods, 182-183;  study  of  hous- 
ing conditions,  occupations, 
etc.,  of,  by  Juvenile  Protective 
Association,  183;  percentage  of 
women  who  are  breadwinners, 
187;  irregular  attendance  of 
children  at  school,  187-188; 
discrimination  against  girls  by 
employers,  189-190;  profes- 
sional men  among,  190-192; 
the  church  the  chief  factor  in 
social  life  of,  192-193;  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  building  devoted  to  in- 
terests of,  193;  as  social  work- 
ers, 193;  settlements  in  or  near 
neighborhoods  of,  193-194;  day 
nurseries  and  homes  for  de- 
pendent children,  194-195;  in- 
adequate provision  for  care  of 
dependent  and  semi-delinquent 
children,  195-196;  reasons  given 
by  leading  colored  men  for 
crime  among,  196-197;  reme- 
dies suggested  for  unjust  dis- 
crimination against  members  of, 


suspected  of  crime,  197-198; 
conclusions  as  to  reasons  for 
delinquency  and  crime  among, 
199-200;  remedy  to  be  found 
in  removal  of  unjust  discrimi- 
nation against,  201. 

Compulsory  education,  useful- 
ness of  women's  votes  in  fur- 
thering, 210. 

Corset  factories,  wages  of  women 
workers  in,  89. 

Criminals,  mistakes  in  our  system 
of  dealing  with  youthful,  115- 
124. 


Dance  halls,  disreputable,  as 
danger  spots  for  children,  4; 
number  of  young  people  who 
attend,  24;  investigation  of,  by 
Juvenile  Protective  Associa- 
tion, 24-25;  disgraceful  condi- 
tions in,  25  fif.;  selling  of  Uquor 
to  minors  in,  26,  31,  33;  sale  of 
liquor  the  main  object  of,  27- 
28;  use  of,  for  immoral  pur- 
poses, 28-29;  prostitutes  at, 
28-29;  dangers  from  masquer- 
ade and  fancy  dress  balls  at,  29; 
desirability  of  divorcing  sale  of 
liquor  from,  29;  obscene  lan- 
guage and  indecent  conduct  in, 
30;  lack  of  light  and  ventila- 
tion, 30-31;  evils  of  special 
bar  permits,  31-33;  dancing  on 
the  streets  as  an  offset  to,  33; 
supervision  of,  in  other  cities, 
35;  means  suggested  for  reme- 
dying evils  of,  in  Chicago,  35- 


234 


INDEX 


36;  women  police  needed  in, 

47. 

Day  nursery  for  colored  children, 
194. 

Death  rate  among  illegitimate 
children,  135. 

Delinquency,  causes  of,  5-11; 
spirit  of  adventure  and,  94,  112, 
163-164;  among  immigrants' 
children,  160-170;  among  col- 
ored boys  and  girls,  170  B., 
199-201;  resulting  from  street 
trading  by  children,  218. 

Delinquents,  legal  protection  for, 
94  fiF.;  principles  underlying 
treatment  of,  by  Juvenile 
Court,  95;  number  of,  to  pass 
through  Juvenile  Court  of 
Chicago,  96;  percentage  of, 
not  normal,  96-97;  establish- 
ment of  separate  court  for 
girls'  cases,  103;  complaint 
department  and  out-of-court 
work  of  Juvenile  Court,  103; 
cases  of  juvenile  adults,  104; 
bad  treatment  of,  by  police 
oflScers,  105-106;  injustice  in 
regard  to  "mugging,"  106-107; 
a  case  of  capital  punishment  for 
juvenile  adults,  107;  parents 
and  home  conditions  of,  108- 
iio;  saloon  keepers  in  league 
with,  111-112;  courts  advo- 
cated for  juvenile  adults,  112; 
our  wrong  system  of  dealing 
with  youthful  criminals,  115- 
124;  subnormal  boys  as,  124- 
127;  wherein  lies  successful 
treatment  of,  127. 

Department  stores,  moral  condi- 


tions in  waiting  rooms  of,  52- 
53;  conditions  of  women  em- 
ployees in,  S3  ff-;  salaries  paid 
girls  in,  55,  89;  living  conditions 
of  girls  in,  55-56;  hours  of  work 
in,  56;  openness  of  girls  to 
temptation,  57-59;  conditions 
in  outlying  or  neighborhood 
stores,  59-61;  stories  of  girls  in, 
61-63;  horrors  of  the  Christmas 
season  in  the,  63-64;  vacation 
system  in,  64;  crying  need  of 
more  lebure  for  girl  employees, 
65-66. 

Dependency  cases,  disposal  of, 
in  Court  of  Domestic  Relations, 
128-129;  percentage  of,  due  to 
drinking  habits  of  parents,  130. 

Dependent  children,  medical  ex- 
amination of,  96. 

Detention  home,  Chicago,  main- 
tained by  Juvenile  Court  Com- 
mittee, 2;  the  new,  5. 

Detroit,  ordinance  forbidding  sale 
of  liquor  in  places  of  amuse- 
ment m,  33. 

Dietitian  connected  with  Widows' 
Pension  department,  99. 

District  of  Columbia,  restriction 
of  hours  of  labor  for  women  in, 

93- 

District  system,  establishment  of, 
in  Chicago,  6-7. 

Domestic  Relations,  Court  of, 
128-129;  disposal  of  cases  in, 
during  first  nine  months,  129; 
out-of-court  work  of  judge's 
social  secretaries,  130;  bas- 
tardy cases  brought  into,  131. 

Drinking,  dependency  and,  130. 


INDEX 


235 


Eight-hour  day  for  children,  eva- 
sion of  law  concerning,  213. 

Eleanor  Association,  the,  53. 

Employment  agencies,  treatment 
of  colored  girls  by,  171,  189; 
demand  for  better  supervision 
of,  220-222. 

Epilepsy  among  delinquent  chil- 
dren, 98. 

Evening  schools,  law  concerning 
attendance  of,  by  illiterate  chil- 
dren not  enforced,  212-213. 

Excursion  boats,  progress  in  reme- 
dying bad  conditions  on,  38-41 ; 
women  police  needed  on,  47. 


Factory  women,  wages  of,  89;  pro- 
hibition of  night  work  for,  ad- 
vocated, 228-229. 

Field  houses  connected  with  small 
parks  in  Chicago,  49. 

Fisher,  Irving,  cited  as  to  poten- 
tial value  of  a  child,  133. 

Franchise,  granting  of  a  partial, 
to  women  in  Illinois,  202;  num- 
ber of  women  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the,  202-203;  just 
claim  of  women  to  the,  203- 
208;  lines  for  proving  useful- 
ness of,  208-230. 

Frederick  Douglass  Center,  settle- 
ment to  promote  better  under- 
standing between  white  and 
colored  people,  193-194. 

Fund  to  Parents  Act,  passage  and 
provisions  of,  98-99. 


Gambling  devices,  use  of,  by  chil- 
dren, 42-45. 

Gangs,  boys',  7-8;  importance  of 
making  over  the,  49. 

Garbage  disposal,  interest  of 
women  in  question  of,  208. 

Girls,  separate  chambers  pro- 
vided in  Juvenile  Court,  for 
hearing  cases  of,  103;  concerned 
in  bastardy  cases,  131-146; 
school  needed  for  truant,  213; 
need  of  Federal  supervision  of 
immigrant,  223-224. 

Gymnasiums,  demand  for  greater 
number  of,  49. 


Hospitals,  disposal  of  illegitimate 
children  from,  131-133. 

Hotels,  conditions  of  working 
women  in,  67-78;  class  of  girls 
who  work  in,  68;  wages  paid  in, 
68-69;  food  of  employees,  69- 
70;  sleeping  accommodations, 
70-71;  long  hours  of  work,  71- 
72;  excessively  hard  work  in, 
76;  moral  dangers  to  which 
women  are  exposed,  72-76; 
harboring  of  girls  by,  227-228. 

Houses  of  prostitution,  colored 
girls  as  maids  in,  171,  189. 


Illegitimate  children,  losing  of, 
131-133;  high  death  rate  among, 
135.    See  Bastardy  cases. 


236 


INDEX 


Immigrants,  need  of  Federal  care 

of  girls  among,  223-224. 

Immigrants'  children,  crime 
among,  160;  tracing  causes  of 
delinquency  of,  160-161;  con- 
tempt and  disregard  of,  for 
their  parents,  161-163;  classi- 
fication of  delinquents  among, 
163;  ignorance  of  law  by  the 
parents,  165;  attitude  of  police 
toward,  166-167;  reason  for 
exposure  of,  to  peculiar  social 
temptations,    169-170. 

ImmoraUty,  not  found  to  be  the 
necessary  consequence  of  in- 
adequate wages,  90. 

Industrial  schools  for  dependent 
children,  started  by  women, 
203. 

Inebriety,  needed  provision  for 
treatment  of,  230. 


Jails,  conditions  in,  1 18-124. 

Junior  League  of  Chicago,  estab- 
lishment of  rest  room  for 
waitresses  by,  86. 

Jurors,  women  as,  at  trials  of 
women,  158. 

Juvenile  adults,  court  needed  for, 
112. 

Juvenile  Court,  establishment  of, 
in  Chicago,  i;  two  great  prin- 
ciples of,  the  valuation  of  the 
child  and  the  abandonment  of 
retributive  punishment,  95; 
number  of  children  who  have 
passed  through,  96;  abnormal 
children  to  appear  in  the,  96; 


psychopathic  clinic  established 
in  connection  with,  98;  ad- 
ministration of  Widows*  Pen- 
sion Act  by,  99;  establishment 
of  separate  chambers  for  the 
hearing  of  girls'  cases,  103; 
complaint  department  and  out- 
of-court  work  of,  103;  responsi- 
bility of  women  for  starting  of, 
203. 

Juvenile  Court  Law,  passage  of 
the  first,  by  the  Illinois  legisla- 
ture, I. 

Juvenile  Protective  Association, 
organization  of  the,  5;  aims  of 
the,  to  remedy  conditions  re- 
sponsible for  Juvenile  Court 
cases,  5-6;  establishment  of  a 
district  system,  6-7;  methods 
and  activities  of  the,  7-9;  in- 
vestigation of  conditions  in 
theatres  and  moving  picture 
shows  by,  13-17;  investigation 
of  public  dance  halls  by,  24-25; 
efforts  of,  to  do  away  with  sale 
of  obscene  postal  cards,  36; 
stopping  of  sale  of  cigarettes 
to  minors,  36;  progress  of,  in 
remedying  bad  conditions  on 
excursion  boats,  38-41;  regula- 
tion of  attendance  of  minors  at 
poolrooms,  41-42;  doing  away 
with  slot  machines  and  gam- 
bling devices  by,  42-45;  investi- 
gation of  dangers  of  amusement 
parks,  45-46;  investigation  of 
waiting  rooms  of  department 
stores,  52-53;  study  of  living 
and  working  conditions  of  girls 
in  department  stores  by,  53-66; 


INDEX 


237 


investigation  of  conditions  in 
hotels  by,  67-78;  investigation 
of  conditions  of  waitresses  in 
eating  places,  78-88;  arrange- 
ments made  by,  for  providing 
for  prisoners'  families,  102;  in- 
terviewing of  boys  in  jail  by, 
120-124;  Court  of  Domestic 
Relations  set  up  through  efforts 
of,  128-129;  study  of  disposal 
of  illegitimate  children,  131- 
^33>  134  ff-5  study  of  cause  of 
large  percentage  of  delinquency 
among  colored  people,  170-201; 
help  anticipated  by,  from  pos- 
session of  vote  by  women, 
209. 


Kansas  City,  supervision  of  dance 

halls  in,  35. 
Kindergartens  in  Chicago  public 

schools,  started  by  women,  203. 


Labor  exchanges,  a  Federal  sys- 
tem of,  required,  221-222. 

Labor  unions,  discrimination 
against  colored  men  by,   174- 

175- 

Lake  steamers,  efforts  to  rem- 
edy evil  conditions  on,  38-41; 
women  police  needed  on,  47. 

Lancaster  Industrial  School,  per- 
centage of  mentally  deficient 
among  inmates  of,  159. 

Lathrop,  Julia  C,  quoted  on  serv- 
ice of  the  Juvenile  Court,  in  re- 


vealing the  wastage  of  human 
life,  127. 

Licenses  of  theatres,  raising  of 
prices  of,  17;  should  be  issued 
for  the  theatre  and  not  for  the 
person  who  operates  it,  22. 

Liquor  Dealers'  Protective  Asso- 
ciation, help  of,  in  prevention 
of  sale  of  Hquor  to  minors,  37. 

Liquor  problem,  provisions 
needed  in  regard  to  the,  229- 
230. 

Liquor  selling  to  minors,  in  dance 
halls,  26,  27-28,  29,  30,  31,  33; 
efforts  of  Juvenile  Protective 
Association  to  prevent,  by 
saloon  keepers,  36-38. 

Loan  sharks,  legislative  action 
needed  concerning,  222-223. 

Lodgers,  immoraUty  resulting 
from  presence  of,  137. 

Loomis  brothers,  story  of  the, 
115-118. 

M 

Marriage  license  regulations,  rec- 
ommendations as  to,  226-227. 

Maryland  Industrial  School,  per- 
centage of  mentally  deficient 
among  inmates  of,  159. 

Medical  certificates  before  mar- 
riage, need  of,  227. 

Mental  deficiency  among  women, 
as  compared  with  men,   158- 

159- 

Messenger  boys,  conditions  re- 
garding, 219-220. 

Milk,  question  of  securing  pure, 
207-208. 


238 


INDEX 


Milwaukee,  Department  of  Rec- 
reation planned  in,  35. 

Minimum  wage  legislation,  88; 
support  of,  by  United  States 
courts,  92-93. 

Morales  Court,  Chicago,  treat- 
ment of  fallen  women  in,  157- 
158. 

Moving  picture  theatres,  wrong- 
doing connected  with,  12  fif.; 
investigation  of,  by  Juvenile 
Protective  Association,  13-17. 

"Mugging"  of  prisoners,  injus- 
tice in  connection  with,  106- 
107. 

N 

Nationality  of  men  involved  in 
bastardy  cases,  150. 

Nearing,  Scott,  cited  as  to  num- 
ber of  children  who  may  be 
decently  provided  for  by  Amer- 
ican fathers,  92. 

Negroes.    See  Colored  people. 

Negro  Fellowship  League,  the, 
194. 

Neighborhood  department  stores, 
conditions  in,  59-61. 

Newsboys,  efforts  for  protection 
of,  217-218;  percentage  of  in- 
mates of  reformatories  who 
have  been,  218;  ordinances 
passed  relative  to,  219. 

Night  work  for  women  in  manu- 
facture, prohibition  of,  228- 
229. 

Norway,  women  juries  to  try 
women  in,  158;  law  concerning 
illegitimate  children  in,  225. 


Obscene  postal  cards,  prevention 
of  sale  of,  36. 

Ohio,  restriction  of  hours  of  labor 
for  women  in,  93. 

Oregon,  minimum  wage  law  in, 
92-93- 

Out-of-court  work,  carried  on  in 
connection  with  Juvenile  Court, 
103;  in  dependency  cases 
brought  before  Court  of  Domes- 
tic Relations,  130. 


Parks  and  playgrounds,  need  of 
greater  number  of,  49;  small 
number  utilized  by  colored 
children,  200. 

Patten,  "Basis  of  Civilization," 
quoted,  50. 

"Pluggers,"  for  advertising  dance 
halls,  26-27. 

Police;  abuse  of  young  prisoners 
by,  105-106;  ill-treatment  of 
colored  boy  by,  105-106;  gen- 
eral attitude  of,  toward  chil- 
dren, 166-167. 

Police  stations,  women  police 
needed  in,  47;  bad  conditions 
in,  in  Chicago,  104-106;  the 
"mugging"  system,  106-107; 
movement  for  matrons  in, 
started  by  women,  203. 

Polish  girls,  employed  in  hotels, 
68;  large  groups  of,  found  living 
together  without  older  women, 
168. 

Poolrooms,   dangers  to  children 


INDEX 


239 


from,  4;  regulation  of  attend- 
ance of  minors  at,  41-42;  em- 
ployment of  colored  men  in, 
176,  177. 
Posters,   theatre,    censorship   of, 

23- 

Prison  contracting  system,  injus- 
tice of  the,  102-103. 

Prisoners'  families,  provision  for, 
100-102. 

Probation  officers  of  Juvenile 
Court,  salaries  paid  by  citizens, 
I ;  taking  over  of,  by  the  county, 
5,  204-205. 

Prostitution,  economic  conditions 
leading  to,  66. 

Psychopathic  clinic,  estabhshed 
in  connection  with  Juvenile 
Court,  98;  for  study  of  criminal 
women,  159. 

Public  Welfare  Department,  work 
of,  in  Kansas  City,  35. 

Pullman  cars,  employment  of 
colored  men  on,  177. 


Real  estate  dealers,  colored  men 

as,  179-182. 
Recreation,    the    search    for,    a 

cause  of  juvenile  delinquency, 

12. 
Restaurants,  conditions  surroimd- 

ing  women  employees  in,  78-88. 
Retail     Druggists'     Association, 

help  of,  in  doing  away  with 

obscene  postal  cards,  36. 
Retail  Fruit  Dealers'  Association, 

help  of,  in  preventing  sale  of 

cigarettes  to  children,  36. 


Retributive  punishment,  aban- 
donment of,  one  of  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Juvenile  Court,  95. 

Rogues'  Gallery,  pictures  of  the 
innocent  in,  106-107. 


Salaries  of  girls  in  department 
stores,  55,  89.    See  Wages. 

Saloon  keepers,  league  between 
young  criminals  and,  111-112. 

Saloons,  dangers  to  children  from, 
4;  run  in  connection  with  dance 
halls,  25-29;  employment  of 
colored  men  in,  176,  177. 

San  Francisco,  experiment  in, 
of  dancing  on  the  streets,  33. 

School  buildings,  waste  in  the  use 
of,  50. 

School  certificates,  needed 
changes  in  requirements  and 
methods  for  obtaining,  210- 
213. 

School  nurses,  responsibility  of 
public- spirited  women  for,  203; 
taking  over  of  work,  by  city 
Public  Health  Department, 
204. 

Shop  girls.  See  Department 
stores. 

Sick  Benefit  Associations  in  de- 
partment stores,  56. 
Slot  machines,  gambling  by  chil- 
dren in  connection   with,  42- 

45- 
Social    secretaries,    for    looking 
after  working  girls,  77-78;  work 
of,  in  connection  with  Court  of 
Domestic  Relations,  130. 


240 


INDEX 


Social  workers,  colored  people  as, 

193- 
Special  bar  permits,  iniquity  of, 

31-33. 

State  Employment  Bureau,  need 
of  a  good,  221. 

Stockyards,  wages  of  women 
workers  in  the,  89. 

Street  children,  demand  for  pro- 
tection for,  215-219;  delin- 
quents found  among,  218;  city 
ordinances  passed  relative  to, 
219. 

Sub-normal  children,  as  delin- 
quents, 124-125;  treatment  of, 
125-127. 

Sweden,  women  juries  in,  158 

Swimming  pools,  need  of  more, 
49. 


Ten-hour  law  for  labor  of  women, 
in  Illinois,  71,  80;  benefits  of, 
to  hotel  and  restaurant  women 
workers,  88;  amendments  of, 
needed,  229. 

Theatres,  investigation  of  condi- 
tions in,  by  Juvenile  Protective 
Association,  13-17;  improve- 
ment in  physical  condition  of, 
17;  story  of  theft  by  girls  to 
obtain  money  to  attend,  18-21; 
improvement  needed  in  method 
of  licensing,  22;  ill  effects  of 
strain  on  the  eyes  and  of  dark- 
ness in,  23 ;  censorship  of  posters 
and  advertisements  of,  recom- 
mended, 23;  abolition  of  ama- 
teur nights  urged,  23;  impor- 


tant functions  of,  when  freed 
from  objectionable  features, 
23-24;  women  police  needed  in, 

47. 
Tipping  of  waitresses,  abolition 
of,  recommended,  87. 


Uniform  birth  regbtration  laws, 
need  of,  209-210. 

United  Societies,  lack  of  ooj^ra- 
tion  by,  in  prevention  of  sale  of 
liquor  in  dance  halls,  37-38. 


Vacation  system  in  department 

stores,  64. 
Ventilation  of  dance  halls,  30- 

31. 
Vbiting  teachers,  importance  of 

need  for,  214. 
Vocational   Bureau,   securing  of 

Ix>sitions  for  children  through 

the,  211. 
Vocational  training  of  women  in 

reformatories,  158. 
Vote,  granting  of  the,  to  women  in 

Illinois,  202.    See  Franchise. 

W 

Wages,  paid  to  women  in  hotels, 
68-69;  of  waitresses  in  restau- 
rants, 81-82;  report  of  Conmiis- 
sioner  of  Labor  on,  88-89;  of 
women  in  department  stores, 
89;  of  unskilled  laborers,  iio- 
II I ;  of  girls  involved  in  bas- 


INDEX 


241 


tardy  cases,  141;  of  colored 
laborers,  185. 

Waiting  rooms  of  department 
stores,  dangers  lurking  in,  5  2-53 . 

Waitresses  in  restaurants,  condi- 
tion of,  78-88;  three-meal,  two- 
meal,  and  one-meal,  80;  long 
hours  of  labor  for  full  time,  80- 
81;  large  number  of,  without 
homes,  81;  wages  of,  81-82; 
nature  of  complaints  by,  82; 
reason  for  becoming  bold,  82- 
83;  avocations  of,  83-84;  rest- 
ing-time  employments  of,  86; 
efforts  of  Junior  League  of 
Chicago  and  of  Waitresses' 
Union  to  help  condition  of,  86- 
87;  abolition  of  tipping  of, 
recommended,  87. 

Waitresses'  Union,  efforts  of,  in 
behalf  of  members,  86-87. 

Welfare  secretaries,  employment 
of,  to  care  for  working  girls, 
77-78. 

Widows'  Pension  Act  (Fund  to 
Parents  Act),  98-99;  effects  of 
amendment  that  families  of 
aliens  shall  not  receive  relief, 
100. 

Women,  wages  of,  89;  living  away 
from  homes  by,  89,  91-92;  poor 
pay  of,  does  not  lead  to  dis- 
reputable method  of  living  in 
greater  proportion  of  cases,  90; 
minimum  wage  and  limitation 
of  hours  of  labor  for,  92-93; 


higher  percentage  of  mental 
deficiency  among,  than  among 
men,  158-159;  psychopathic 
study  of  criminal,  159;  granting 
of  a  partial  franchise  to,  in 
Illinois,  202;  constant  interest 
of,  in  welfare  of  women  and 
children,  and  activities  started 
by,  203;  undertakings  organized 
and  at  first  maintained  by, 
taken  over  by  city,  county,  or 
state,  203-206;  prohibition  of 
night  work  by,  in  factories,  228- 
229. 

Women  jurors  at  trials  of  women, 
158. 

Women  poUce,  need  for,  in  large 
cities,  46-48;  analogy  between 
work  of,  and  that  of  other 
women  officers,  48;  work  being 
done  by  present  force  of,  in 
Chicago,  49;  increasing  demand 
for,  for  protection  of  women 
prisoners,  154-157;  movement 
for,  started  by  women,  203. 

Working  age  for  children,  raising 
of,  210. 

Working  day  for  children,  non- 
enforcement  of  law  regarding, 
213. 


Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion building,  in  Chicago,  for 
colored  men  and  boys,  193. 


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